Loud House: The King in Yellow
by RobbyA
Summary: Sequel to Revival. Three years after Maya Lottie wrought the ultimate apocalypse on the Earth, Cthulhu's half-brother had manifested on the Earth believing it to be his destiny.
1. Chapter 1

_Have you seen the Yellow Sign_?

* * *

It had been three years since Maya Lottie arrived at the town of Royal Woods, Michigan and enacted the ultimate apocalypse. Thousands of people in different nations and countries were snuffed out. Cities were ravaged by the pantheon of eldritch beings with there being little to no salvageable hope of them ever being rebuilt to their former glory.

At the very least Maya was dead ultimately undone by the very power that she entrusted to a little girl. Maya, otherwise, the former dreaded voice of the Outer Gods Nyarlathotep, left a progeny in the form of a contingency plan to further his legacy of chaos. However, his former slave Patrick Stark ensured that his schemes died with him and raised the young child as his own.

Most of the gods were also killed alongside the accursed Nyarlathotep. The second most powerful of the pantheon besides the Nuclear Chaos Azathoth was Yog-Sothoth who was summoned to blow the dust away from the blue marble but like the Messenger of the Outer Gods, Yog-Sothoth was thwarted by Nyarlathotep's slave. But he knew all and nothing was hidden from him. The defeat of the gods on Earth was merely a temporary setback as far as the Keeper of the Gate was concerned. He knew where the old gods once broke out and where they would trek once more. It was only a matter of time for the gods to have their supreme victory.

* * *

In Royal Woods, Michigan, a tired nightguard was keeping watch over the quiet mall. Crust accumulated at the corners of his eyes. Thick bags were under them. It was nearing 3 in the morning when he decided to take a few glimpses at the surveillance footage. All seemed well, but rather tedious and mundane. Without the sounds of the footsteps of customers merrily walking around to different departments at their leisure, the mall was a ghost town.

He turned his attention to the mall's parking lot next. As he was taking a sip of his coffee, he suddenly noticed a slight disturbance. He spit the contents of his drink out in shock and rushed to bombard the entrance.

A hunched figure wobbled to the mall's entrance. With his flashlight in his hand, the nightguard seized it. For whatever reason, he was becoming unsettled by the sudden appearance of the mysterious stranger. He couldn't fathom it, but at the same time, the stranger emitted such an aura, it drove him over the edge. The flashlight's beam grew unstable and near the end of its life. Regardless, he used it to make out what little he could observe the man's appearance. It spiraled him into more fear.

The large hooded figure was dressed in a tattered cloak made of seemingly golden fabric. Around his neck was a necklace encrusted with a bizarre symbol. The man's long, bony fingers reached out to tap at the glass in a droning motion. The nightguard cocked his gun and feebly held it between his hands.

* * *

"You better get on and get!" the nightguard yelled.

The hooded man bent down to look directly at the nightguard. The little specks of light from the flashlight illuminated off his face revealing that he was wearing a smooth, palette mask. A low, monotonous tune rung out from the mask.

"You are in the presence of the King in Yellow; Him Who is Not to Be Named. The Unspeakable One."

The nightguard tapped his gun on the glass repeating the same demand. In the corner of his eye, another figure manifested. This figure, however, had a slim feminine physique. She gracefully walked on the concrete of the park way, practically floating from the gust of wind. She was roughly around the same height of the cloaked man. Much like him, she wore a cloak, a black one at that. She knelt as well; she possessed a singular eye hidden away by the bangs of her black hair.

"Who are you two," the nightguard stammered, "and what do you want?"

* * *

The cloaked man spoke again with more authority in his face. He quizzically stared at the man as if he were the stranger intending on infiltrating the mall at closing time.

"For eons, I've been imprisoned in my city of Carcosa. Just recently, my hated brother Cthulhu that foolish Great Dreamer ravaged your city alongside the other gods of the pantheon I am affiliated with."

Without another word, he clawed at his mask and pulled it downward. Underneath the mask was a plethora of beastly mandibles and eyes that pulsated each time they multiplied. The nightguard saw this this, a bubble of horror slowly ascending his throat from the deepest pits of his stomach. He wanted to scream, but his lips were sewed shut. He looked down and saw that at the base of the man, instead of two legs, legions of tentacles erupted from underneath the scraps of golden fabric.

"With my half-brother dead, I have manifested on your rock to take my place as the ruler of this pathetic planet."

The nightguard's body was overcome with the god's otherworldly power. His mind evaporated as his thoughts were perversely invaded while subsequently having subliminal messages pumped into what remained of it. They were of his Yellow Sign. The nightguard's body welted up like a balloon under the threat of explosion. His flesh painfully crystallized into rows upon rows of reptilian scales. The bones and joints in the poor man's limbs fractured, sending him sprawling on the ground.

"From here until the end of your miserable life, you are indebted to me. Call me Hastur."

* * *

Hastur turned to glare at the woman accompanying him. She motionlessly stood by the grotesque blob and looked at it apathetically. She too stared at him, unflinching.

"I know what you have done," he said.

The woman laughed. "Oh? Pray tell me."

Hastur clenched his fist. "I know you took my half-niece and secured her somewhere in a place where I do not know."

The woman arched her eyebrow. "It was three years ago, and now your primitive mind realized something was amiss." She held her hand in front of her mouth as she laughed. It irritated Hastur and he would've struck her then and there only to relent when he remembered that she was of a higher authority than he was.

"You're fortunate that I do not slice you into seven pieces and then cast those pieces to the farthest reaches of the universe. Nay, save a few pieces so I can directly go to Azathoth himself and feed them to him."

The woman chuckled again. "You sought me out because of my infinite knowledge and power, Hastur. You know as much as I do that, I am too valuable to cast away into the gates."

Hastur nodded in agreement and turned his attention back to the bloated nightguard. He telepathically spoke with him. "Wake up."

* * *

The blubbery man rolled on his side and slowly got up. His mind was gone. His personality stripped away to make room for Hastur's influence. "What is your bidding, master?"

Hastur caressed his necklace. "See this sign?"

The nightguard shook his head, the fatness around it jiggling. "I want you to spread my sign to as many people as you possibly can. Once everyone has seen it, they too will fall under my influence and becoming my slaves. It is then that this world would fall into the clutches of the King in Yellow."

The nightguard weakly salutes Hastur and wobbled his way out of the mall allowing the two to enter in. Hastur looked around the mall in satisfaction. The mall would be where his kingdom would begin.


	2. Cthylla

In a tightly guarded dwelling, a young woman was heavily watched. Her guardians were amphibious abnormalities dressed head and toe in fish-like scales. Feathery gills were around their necks. The Deep Ones, while normally aquatic, moved about on dry land with little issue. They, alongside the Yuggya, surrounded themselves around a seeming human with red hair. Her belly was engorged from her nearing her time of delivery.

The red-haired woman was a Great Old One, one of the many offspring of the High Priest of the Great Old Ones, Cthulhu. The Great Dreamer consulted his superior Nyarlathotep at one point in the endless millennia about his realization that he was not truly immortal. Even in death, Nyarlathotep posthumously oversaw the birth of Cthulhu's daughter, influencing Cthulhu to entrust his Deep Ones to protect his child with their lives. For when – not if – Cthulhu was truly destroyed, his daughter, Cthylla, would give birth to him.

Hastur knew of his hated half-brother's plan to achieve a return to power in this way. During the arrival of the gods of old to the Earth, Hastur attacked one of the Deep Ones' underwater civilizations to kill his half-niece.

* * *

"Have you heard these tremors?" a Deep One asked another.

"Yes I have, but I am not afraid," the other Deep One remarked, "I sense that it's just the result of the gods awakening."

Their civilization existed underground on the shores of some beach somewhere. Cthylla was in her room being tended to by her servants when she too heard the odd sounds from the outside. Cthylla got up from her resting place and advanced towards the door. She was stopped by one of her guards. "It is much too dangerous for you to go out there, my lord."

"But what is this great disturbance?" she asked, "it sounds unsettling."

A few of the Deep Ones picked up their shields and other weapons and stood fiercely to the main entrance of their civilization. A large bang echoed through the door knocking them down, paralyzed. As they scrambled to get back up, the brunt force was exerted on the door again. Once. Twice. Three times. The door was slowly getting off its hinges with each violent attack. Slam. Slam. Slam. A tall, thin Deep One, the leader of sorts, retrieved his sword.

"We must not allow them to enter!" he commanded.

The Deep Ones tried to hold on a little longer by pressing themselves against the door. The slamming stopped momentarily lasting for roughly thirty minutes. "They're gone," the leading Deep One proclaimed. The rest of his kind were slow to cheer because of their fears, but they took what he had said in confidence and began to lower their guards.

"Princess Cthyalla is safe for no-"

_BAM._

The door was slashed open and crumbled. On the other end of it was Hastur and his legions of bloated, scaly minions. Hastur scratched incessantly at his mask as if contemplating what his next move would be. The Deep Ones readied their weapons in anticipation. Hastur chuckled lowly, relishing in the fear that some of the Deep Ones had for him. "I can already taste your fear," Hastur said tauntingly, "I'll let you live another miserable day if you tell me where my niece is."

"We will not betray her whereabouts to you, snake," the leader of the Deep Ones said. There was a noticeable shaking in his voice, but he struggled to withhold it. Hastur seized a few of his men with his tentacles and presented them to the leader. The leader's eyes widened due to knowing what would be coming next.

"Is that so? Well, I have some time to kill, so let's play."

Before the Deep One could respond, Hastur stabbed his tentacles into the Deep Ones' chests ripping their hearts to shreds. The other Deep Ones screamed knowing that their species was by all accounts immortal lest killed through great violence. Three Deep Ones grabbed a hold of their spears and sprinted to jab Hastur's tentacles with them. It proved to be a fruitless endeavor for the Great Old One merely stretched out his hands and set them ablaze. He tossed the bodies of the dead Deep Ones onto the ground at the leader's feet. More arrived to try to assist in the fight but Hastur quickly removed his mask. The Deep Ones became hopelessly insane and were reduced to catatonic states. The leader saw one of the soldiers still alive and looked sternly at him.

"Go help Cthyalla to escape!"

"But, sir, what about..."

"Just do it! Forget about me!"

The Deep One reluctantly nodded and dashed to collect Cthulhu's daughter. The leader was now the only one left to face off against the King in Yellow. Hastur laughed maniacally while slipping his mask on his face. "Minions," he said, "go and kill everyone here! Enjoy your fill!"

When they heard him, they immediately raced off to face the other Deep Ones scattered throughout the civilization. Hastur returned his attention to the leader of the Deep Ones. "I must say that I admire your determination, but I must tell you that everyone dies whether at my hands or through natural means. Think of me as one of the highest representatives of chaos. Shall we begin?"

Dozens of Deep Ones fell due to the divine powers of the Great Old One. Cthylla was made to bear witness to the civilization's destruction. Thousands of bodies seared to a crisp from the fire that Hastur rained down on the city; other Deep Ones were mutilated upon recognition. Once Patrick banished Yog-Sothoth back outside of time and space, Hastur was cast back to his alien planet angered that his attempts of killing Cthulhu had gone unfulfilled.

* * *

The Deep Ones had evacuated their city and hid out in Royal Woods to protect Cthylla. They stood around her as she was lying on her back. It was approaching the time for Cthulhu's rebirth. They muttered an extraterrestrial language for a long period until they heard a rustling. Alerted, they turned their attention to a tall woman. She glared intensely with her one eye. The Deep Ones immediately knew who she was and bowed to her.

"I'm here for you, Cthylla," she said.

Cthylla lifted her head up. "Lord Yog-Sothoth? What brings you here?"

Yog-Sothoth towered over her and extended her hand. "I'm certain you know why I am here. Your uncle has returned to Earth and is searching for you now."

Cthylla frowned, understanding what she was saying. "Just don't make it too painful."

Yog-Sothoth waved her hand over Cthylla's body, sensing the child move within her womb. Bending down, she tapped Cthylla's swollen abdomen with her long fingers. The next thing Cthylla knew, Yog-Sothoth's hands dove through her outer skin, tearing their way into her flesh. Cthylla grimaced. Her legs shook violently from the most subtle of Yog-Sothoth's probing. The Deep Ones stood by again chattering an indiscernible language. Cthylla's green blood pooled onto the ground. Yog-Sothoth made deep incisions into the mound of flesh surrounding Cthylla's alien womb until she wrapped her fingers around Cthulhu's head. Cthylla breathed heavily and groaned, fighting off the stinging pain if her dying body could allow it. Her life was slowly slipping away through the fingers of the Guardian of the Gate. With a final thrust, Yog-Sothoth completely removed Cthylla's spawn from her womb. Cthylla sighed a breath of relief. Her body gave out and transformed into an amorphous form. Yog-Sothoth held the baby in her hands quizzically observing it. She then rubbed some of Cthylla's blood before handling the child to the Deep Ones.

"Now to send Hastur off his track."

* * *

Shortly after the death of his mother, the reborn Cthulhu was whisked away from the dwelling and into the wilderness. Cthulhu looked around his surroundings. His eyes beheld oddities like tall, slender trees with thick tufts of vegetation. Deer and other forms of forest life scurried from behind bushes and the tall trees. One deer stopped in its tracks to observe the young Cthulhu. The deer galloped in place from the sheer ugliness of the infant Great Old One, standing on its hind legs and falling over dead, presumably out of shock.

Before him, Yog-Sothoth manifested. The sudden appearance spooked the Great Old One, but otherwise, Cthulhu was intrigued. She arrived with a few of the Deep Ones. A Deep One grunted in that same tone of indescribable language from the refuge. Yog-Sothoth had little to no issue with understanding its inquiry.

"This is all necessary," she explained, "Hastur may realize that Cthulhu was still alive and try to go for him once more; this is to make him stronger."

Yog-Sothoth drew a circle on the ground before stepping back. There came a rustling from the ground and through it erupted a yellow light. Something bubbled to the surface letting out a deathly groan. The gelatinous mass inched its way out of the conjured portal repeatedly going back and forth unable to decide what to transform into.

* * *

The young Cthulhu tried to inch away from the amorphous blob to no avail. Rows of teeth and eyes formed; it shifted a portion of its body into a clawed hand and grabbed Cthulhu by the leg. Cthulhu firmly held himself on the ground to keep the blob from pulling him further. A sickening slurp drew Cthulhu's leg into the blob's body. Cthulhu let out a yelp of anguish. His leg was plunged deeper into the blob's body with enough suction-force. The force created small tears in Cthulhu's leg until the joints within it completely broke off. With his alien blood staining the ground, the rest of Cthulhu's body was drawn into the blob.

"It will require a large amount of training," Yog-Sothoth explained, "so we shall start off with a shoggoth."

In a town 20 hours from Royal Woods, Michigan, Patrick was tending to housework. He had long since named Nyarlathotep's daughter Mia Stark. But the oddest aspect about her is that despite being roughly the size of a human child at three months, Mia grew rapidly in comparison to her peers, toppling the height of her elementary school classmates. She even learned to walk and talk at around eight days afterward. Much like any of the Outer Gods, she had a strange smell to her that was nauseating to others. Animals also feared and hated her oftentimes going as far as to attack her unprovoked. She was a constant fear the students and teachers had on their minds.

"What should we do?" one of the teachers asked.

Mia lacked a comprehension of the inner mechanisms' humans shared. Not once did she respond to her teacher's probing her for a reaction. She was constantly on the receiving end of the ire of her classmates who bullied her relentlessly. In fact, as Patrick was preparing to pick his daughter up, he received a call. Not thinking too much about it, he answered his phone, his eyes widening with what he was hearing.

"I'll be there in a few minutes," Patrick said.

He got into his car in anxiety. If what he was hearing was true, his daughter had unwittingly injured one of her classmates. When he arrived at the school, he saw that the students were gathered around in a circle all looking at something lying on the ground. Mia was a short distance away, alone. She looked down on the ground, not even reacting to her father's sudden appearance. He then walked over to also look at the site the students were gathered around. A young boy was writhing on the ground in a maddened frenzy with his eyes glazed over.

"Oh no," Patrick said to himself.

* * *

Patrick took random glances of his daughter on the ride home. His daughter still had a blank expression devoid of any readable emotions. "It happened again, Dad," she finally said.

Patrick gulped nervously. "I'm quite certain that everything will be alright, princess."

Mia shook her head defiantly. "He was making me mad, but something happened. I blacked out then I woke up and he was on the ground."

Patrick listened tentatively. He was way aware more than anyone else that his adopted daughter wasn't human but rather the spawn of his master. He was hopeful that she'd inherit his ability to comprehend human morality, but instead, she found herself becoming more and more distant from other people besides himself. Unlike her father, she did not commit her actions out of malice, but she otherwise did not understand what she was doing as uncivilized. He broke out of his train of thought when his daughter spoke again.

"Dad, is there something wrong with me?"

Patrick went to shake his head in denial. "No, don't say that, dear. You're just…different is all."

Mia sensed the uncertainty in his voice becoming more disheartened by it.


	3. Young Cthulhu

Day after day, it was the same as far as the young Cthulhu was concerned. Each day, Yog-Sothoth would conjure a wretched Shoggoth to fight against what amounted to unleashing a rabid dog on a child. Each day, Cthulhu's limbs would be ripped off his body by the insufferable pressure of the Shoggoth's gelatinous form. Yog-Sothoth would see Cthulhu's suffering but whether out of her extraterrestrial mindset or some other deeply rooted reason, she would allow the creatures to mutilate and dismember him if he was overwhelmed as was often the case. She would then use her powers over space-time to resurrect Cthulhu before he was killed to further commence his training. But one day would prove to be the absolute worst for the young Great Old One.

* * *

It was six in the morning when Cthulhu was heavily guarded by the Deep Ones. Yog-Sothoth left Hastur to his own devices and returned. Cthulhu's eyes opened sharply without him even having to guess who was there. He shook fearfully before the Watcher of the Gate. Yog-Sothoth looked at him with her singular, three-lobed eye.

It was only a few weeks, but Yog-Sothoth couldn't help but feel convicted by the fear that Cthulhu had for her. Something resembling a vague sense of compassion temporarily filled her mind. Yog-Sothoth had fathered different children throughout the years up to and including the infamous Dunwich Horror conceived when she was summoned as part of a ritual. But she already felt a kinship with the young Cthulhu despite not birthing him herself.

She whisked Cthulhu back into an open field where she sketched three large circles in the ground. Cthulhu had barely recovered from his last quarrel with the Shoggoths and now he was about to face three. Not in that condition, thank you very much. The black wads of goo oozed through the summoning circles absorbing everything in their path. Plants, woodland creatures. All of them were sucked up in a great storm into the Shoggoths pulsating bodies to be absorbed and added to the mounds.

Cthulhu beat his wings that were reduced to just the fleshy joints in effort of flying away to no avail. Each time he beat his wings, another surge of pain would wash over his body. The Shoggoths were approaching him at rapid speed and tearing the very earth underneath them. Cthulhu struggled to get himself up to run. He was about to get ripped apart once more by the blobs of malevolence if he didn't do anything about it. To his relief, a large pine tree appeared in his vision, and much like a cat trying to run away from a vicious canine, he started to climb it. The bumpy texture of the bark proved to be uncomfortable at first, but Cthulhu slowly inched his way up the tree safely out of the direction of the Shoggoths.

The Shoggoths assaulted the tree and shook it vibrantly. Pinecones plummeted from the branches and fell on the blob monsters further angering them. Cthulhu shouted a tune of horror. The tree continued to shake from the Shoggoths' desperation of getting the young Great Old One. The black ooze of the gelatinous mounds seeped under the tree to uproot it. The inky texture quickly ate its way up the tree. Cthulhu screeched out a tone of sheer horror.

"Wait!"

* * *

A sudden voice caused the Shoggoths to freeze in place. Cthulhu stared seeing Yog-Sothoth holding up her hand authoritatively. The Shoggoths became as dogs and whimpered in pathetic fashion. Cthulhu descended the tree with caution, cowering before the Outer God. Yog-Sothoth sensed this and got down to Cthulhu's level.

"Everything will be alright, little one." The grip she had around Cthulhu's shoulder tightened. Cthulhu, sensing this, attempted to break it. She pushed him directly in the direction of the Shoggoths. "Know that all of this is necessary."

With that, she tossed Cthulhu back into the direction of the Shoggoths. Large bubbles ruptured through the inky blackness. If one were to analyze it further, it could be implicated that they were laughing. The thought of ripping apart a child that is trying to claw into its adoptive mother's arm to keep from getting pried away from her. Yog-Sothoth pitched him aside towards the Shoggoths.

Cthulhu tried to scream out for Yog-Sothoth to save him only for the Shoggoths to draw him further in. Once he was completely submerged, that black, putrid ooze seeped through the tentacles concealing his mouth and ripped them aside. They invaded his mouth with the most dastardly of intrusion: Cthulhu's screams became mixed with the bitter-tasting liquid and his strange, alien blood. They thrust their tentacles deeper into Cthulhu's mouth. In a hazy tune, Cthulhu's vocal cords were liquified, ending his shrieks of anguish. The Shoggoths pressed harder on Cthulhu's body, crushing every bone in his body. Lastly, they decapitated the head of the limp body. Yog-Sothoth stood by with that same look of disinterest on her face.

With a snap of her fingers, Cthulhu's body phased from the Shoggoths' mass and slowly began to reassemble itself. The joints snapped back in place; the flesh swirled around in a small gust of wind and reentered his body. Yog-Sothoth stretched his body out as his skin stitched itself together through otherworldly means. She then placed him back into it. She snapped her fingers again, causing him to collapse on the ground. The Shoggoths were set back to the darkness Yog-Sothoth summoned them to.

"This is the most humiliating display I have seen thus far," Yog-Sothoth said. No hint of anger was in her tone of voice, but she was nevertheless displeased.

Cthulhu looked at his adoptive mother with sadness. "Mother, I tried my best."

Yog-Sothoth knelt down. "Sometimes your best isn't good enough. Your brother Hastur is already here on Earth; he believes you to be dead."

"How can I beat him, mother?" he asked.

Yog-Sothoth extended out her hand and caressed his cheek. "He still believes that you are dead. That will save us enough time to make you powerful enough to destroy him and conquer this world for us."

While he did feel the brunt of the pain from getting savagely dismembered over and over, Cthulhu did get the sense that Yog-Sothoth was right. In his latest run-ins with the Shoggoths, he did feel stronger and more capable. In fact, he was able to hold his ground just a little midge longer, before Yog-Sothoth, of course, tossed him into the direction of the blobs. It especially helped that he was already starting to grow due to his otherworldly biology.

* * *

Hastur continued to reside in the mall of Royal Woods using his godly powers to conceal himself from prying eyes but passing the time to reveal partial orifices of his body to drive any straying customer hopelessly insane. He made a makeshift throne for himself out of discarded cardboard and garbage. It wasn't the most grand of furniture, but Hastur was unconcerned instead devoting hours contemplating how to further spread his influence to the rest of the world.

"Where is she?" Hastur asked himself. He tapped his thin fingers together. Now he was truly regretting entrusting Yog-Sothoth to assist him in his global takeover. As he was thinking hardly on it, one of his servants appeared before him shortly before the mall's opening hours.

"There is no sign of her, my lord."

Hastur jumped back. "Blasted minion! Never sneak up on me while I'm mewing my thoughts over."

"I'm sorry, sir," he began, "but Yog-Sothoth had completely gone off the radar."

Hastur's mandibles clattered together audibly. Failure is never something a ruler wants to hear. Especially one who desires to take control over the whole world. Hastur stood up from his throne, towering over the servant. The servant gulped in fear.

"What was that!?"

Hastur grabbed the servant by the fatness of his neck and gripped his fingers around it. The servant grunted from the lack of breath going to his lungs. He was one of the many people who saw the Yellow Sign and was transformed by it body and soul to become one of Hastur's many worshipers. But now, he was being squeezed like the last bit of toothpaste inside of the tube.

"Gr...mff...!"

Hastur tightened his grip further. With his other hand, he tapped the "chin" of his palette mask. There had to be some explanation to how Yog-Sothoth could completely disappear without moment's notice. He was a god in his own right, but he always lacked the same raw power that the Outer Gods possessed. Some had power over space, time, life itself. One even created the entire universe at seeming ignorance. Even his wretched half-brother was a big hitter. That was always something Hastur despised: he was born to achieve greatness. The universe was rightfully his, and yet despite his great ambitions, he was only given a small sliver of power.

"That's right," Hastur finally said in realization, "she can make herself invisible by projecting an aura around her."

The servant's face and cheeks turned a deep shade of purple. Nerves formed in his eyes from the final bits of oxygen left within him. Hastur was still immersed in his thoughts, he did not hear his final gasp. Hastur looked down and saw that he was no longer alive and tossed him across the room before setting it ablaze.

"All I need to do is find out just where she had been going all this time."

* * *

Meanwhile in Royal Woods, Lisa was in her kindergarten class per usual. Lisa was sitting close to her best friend Darcy when Ms. Shrinivas arrived at the classroom to begin class. "Class, today I have something special."

The kids perked up to listen. "We'll be having a show and tell event two weeks from now."

She continued to speak saying how the purpose behind it was to show their families what they have learned. Lisa was contemplating what to do when she received a tap on her shoulder. She turned around seeing that it was Darcy.

"What are you going to do, Lisa?" she asked.

"I haven't the faintest of ideas, Darcy." Thoughts spiraled around in her mind. As she thought, she felt a buzzing in her pocket. While Ms. Shrinivas was still talking, Lisa slipped out her communicator.

"Hello?"

"Lisa, hey, it's me, Leni!"

"Leni? Why are you calling me now? I'm still in class right now."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Leni said apologetically, "I'm heading out of town, and I wanted you to record The Dream Boat for me."

Lisa rolled her eyes. Dream Boat? While she does love the show herself, she failed to understand why it was important enough for Leni to interrupt the lesson. But it also proved to be an interesting thought experiment. Lisa replied that she would and immediately ended the call.

"Darcy, I think I know what I'm going to do my show and tell on."

Darcy's eyes lit up. "What is it?"

"What if you could project one show directly to every part of the world?"

Lisa was going to further explain to Darcy what she meant by her statement, but their teacher had noticed them not paying attention, so Lisa turned the discussion back to her. But the thought that there could be a way to project one show on a worldwide scale proved to be interesting.

* * *

A man was driving his car heading home after a long day of work. Given that it was a long way back, he decided to crank up some tunes to pass time. He pressed his finger on the knob to activate the radio. The radio was baring due to the man's carelessness. He was so immersed in the music; he nearly missed the sudden appearance of a man in the corner of his eye. He found himself swerving off the road only to regain control of the wheel at the last minute. The front of the car slammed against a metal pole causing the airbags to erupt and nearly suffocate him. After wrestling with the airbags, the man got out of the car. He was terrified: the man he nearly hit was sprawled out on the ground.

He frantically ran over to see if the man was still breathing. Upon further inspection, it was amazing that the man could walk. He was nothing more but a boneless, fleshy orb of fat. His skin was also rough to the touch. He resembled an obese reptile, or better yet, a turtle that was plopped on its back.

"Sir are you okay?" the man asked.

He lifted one of the man's blubbery arms to feel a pulse. As he feared, there was no sign of life within it. "No…"

The man gently placed the fat man's arm back down to his side hoping to call for help. Without warning, the man burst to life and grabbed unto his arm. The driver knocked his phone down in surprise and tried to wriggle out of his tight grip to no avail. The man grinned widely, revealing his yellowly gums.

"Have you seen the Yellow Sign?"


	4. Nyarlathotep

I haven't the faintest idea of what to do. I love Mia with all my heart, but each day, I feel that he is manifesting himself within her. Mia still has difficulty with socializing with her age group and is unresponsive to questions her teacher asks. Now, she caused one of her classmates to become insane. She remained expressionless all throughout unfazed by the irreversibly of the madness she unwittingly instilled. But every time something of this sort happened, I nevertheless felt some relief that she was unwittingly doing these things without genuine malice.

It's been a good three years since my master died but I felt that he wasn't truly gone. It only felt like yesterday when the Outer God enslaved me not too long after bringing death and insanity on my city and took my beloved family away from me. There I was alone with that inhumane beast. He took the visage of my oldest daughter not too long when we were both forced to relocate from the cesspool that was my city. What we did during those days was the most undesirable.

Living with Nyarlathotep, or as he always had me refer to him as his master, was a nightmare given every passing day. He told me things that no mortal should ever have the displeasure of knowing about the utter meaninglessness that we served as a species how part of his actions revolved around sewing chaos due in part from the will of his sleeping father Azathoth whom he cursed without shame. He claimed that he selected me as his father because of my experience as being an active one in my children's lives, but I knew very well that he was just fucking with me.

Every time I was around my master, I could hear the faint screams of my family from deep within that monster. If you were in my situation, I would've loved nothing more than to wrap my fingers around his thin neck and squeeze the life out of him until I saw the light fade from his horrible green eyes. I would've loved locking him away in chains and continually send him further and further down the brink of despair. I wanted to do to him what he had done to my family. I am certain that you all would love nothing more but to do the same. On an infinite scale no less. But I knew that this alien being was smarter than to let his grip over me loosen enough so I could betray him without a hiccup. He'd tear me apart limb from limb, and may as well reconstruct me so I could go through the same thing again. But I never lost hope that I would exact my revenge on him. Even if it took the rest of my life, I would get him back.

* * *

Day 1

Not too long after we moved to a new town, the master was already craving unleashing chaos. Suiting of a festering sickness like he was. When he shapeshifted into my daughter, he walked up to an ice cream truck, curious about the different flavors. I don't recall much, but I could faintly hear the ice cream man shouting at my master probably about him not having money. This gave way to the sudden sounds of screaming. I ran towards the direction of the sounds until my eyes beheld master in one of his many avatars, this one a tall goat-man. The ice cream man was lifted high in the air with the master's fingers wrapped tightly around his throat.

What happened next was a total blur. Just a frenzy of slashes and cuts echoed in my ears. The ice cream man was whimpering in pain from the master's claws slashing into his body swiftly. His ice cream truck was upturned and set ablaze in the onslaught of chaos. By the time that master was done with him, he was reduced to shreds. The Dark Man stared at me with an amused glare before transforming back into the image of my daughter. He grabbed a small packet of ice cream that was discarded and opens it to take a lick of it.

"Strawberry?" he asked, "you humans never cease to amaze me."

* * *

Day 2

Master just continues to show how much of an unbridled force of malevolence he is. He always bragged about the many followers he had accumulated throughout his ancient existence and leaving civilizations in ruin but even in the shape of a little girl, he was already beginning to gather a following. It started with him meeting a young girl who was kneeling on the ground. We asked her what the matter was, of course, but thinking back on it, it was not too hard to see why.

Without saying a word, we saw that she was kneeling over a dead kitten. She explained through her tear-ridden eyes that she would feed the kitten on her way to school every day until the kitten was hit by a car. It was a speckled white cat with black spots and green eyes. Master wordlessly looked at the carcass critically. I couldn't see the master's face that was obscured by the shadow of my standing body. For a long moment master did not speak. The girl was loudly sobbing now. The sounds of her anguish seemed to elicit a response from the master. Whether he was affected by the girl's sadness I could not say. Instead, he took a finger and placed it on the deceased kitten. Within minutes, the kitten's ears began to twitch, and its tail wagged. The kitten's eyes flickered open as though it were surprised that it was back. The girl was delighted and looked at my master with such faith that from that point forward, she became her "friend."

* * *

Day 5

Now I knew the reason why master did what he did. The girl presented him to all her friends. Like what he had done with my city, he started to amaze the group of young children with his supernatural tricks such as taking otherworldly metals and combining them in alien geometric shapes. By his side was the girl looking just as enamored with the unnatural spectacles that master was doing.

But then came the parents who were enraged that their children were away from home for many hours long enough that the sun was beginning to fall. With a growl, master pointed at the girl's kitten. A wave of green light washed over the kitten. The kitten's fur bubbled away as its limbs and midsection began to enlarge. Boils formed on every orifice of its body becoming larger until they bulged from its body. Green ooze dripped from the open boils; a low hiss bubbled from the kitten's throat. The kitten towered over the parents at the size of a woolly mammoth.

The parents screamed and tried to collect their children but were overpowered and mowed down by the kitten's large canines. Many of the parents were mauled senselessly. I tried to scream out to master to stop what he was doing, but he kept my mouth sealed shut. The kids were still so enraptured by master's tricks, when he pointed to the street, the children carelessly followed the direction of it. Automobiles were speeding feverishly on the road.

"No," I thought.

I continued with my attempts of yelling but only my muffled screams passed through my lips. Master turned to look at me, an expression of delight plastered across his face.

* * *

Day 10

Five children walked into the direction of speeding traffic. Some were badly hurt by the cars, but at the very least, there weren't any casualties. By the time the ambulance was alerted, Master and I paid a visit to the girl. She was bedridden with five broken limbs and her arm and leg were patched up. She also had a bandage wrapped around her forehead.

"We are so sorry that you ended up in here like this," I said, "if there's anything we can- "

"Did I do good, master?" she asked my master.

Master stood by unfazed at the manic girl. She was now giggling incessantly with her chest exhaling. I stood there disturbed unsure of what to do in response to the display happening before me. She started to rise from her bed still laughing despite the apparent pain of her sudden movements.

"Don't worry, master, I'll do it again, please! -"

Nurses were called into the room. They surrounded the bed and grabbed a hold of her arms and legs. She nevertheless continued laughing until we were forced to leave. Master never thought of the girl again.

I fear what type of being my master is. If he can have so much control over a child without much effort...what will he do to me if he saw that I was unfaithful to him. He told me repeatedly that I was lucky that he graced me to serve him after all.

* * *

Day 12

There are fires everywhere in the street. Bizarre slug-like abnormalities are rampaging destroying everything in their path. People are screaming bloody murder as they are trying to avoid getting consumed by the monsters. But...what is my master doing? He's...he's dancing in the streets like a graceful ballerina uncaring to the insane situations going on around him. People are dropping over dead out of the failure of comprehending these beasts before them.

Explosions ring through the air with the National Guard being called in to quash the problem. But what's this? They're turning their guns against the monsters and...are they? No...it can't be. They're firing into the crowds of screaming civilians. One. Two. Dozens are getting gorily cut down by the soldiers meant to protect them. I stared at my master and I immediately understood. He was driving the soldiers to insanity like with the crowd and is killing the civilians through them. Their eyes were glowing that same, luminescent hue that the master's eyes are.

Survivors of the rampage are running now. They tripped over each other from slipping and sliding on the blood spilled on the streets. They became like mindless animals trapped in a maze without any foreseeable exits. Master gathered the people in columns trapping them in circles of fire. He was laughing his ass off at all of the fun he was having. He would make passing glances at me saying "See how they run" or "I am intoxicated by their screams."

Madness reigned supreme as the soldiers unloaded their guns and then turned against each other to bash themselves with their weapons. This is getting unbearable. I have to escape master somehow. Does he sleep? If I could somehow orchestrate my getaway, I would not suffer the master's wrath.

I feel that I'm going insane now just thinking about the days as I'm writing it down as my personal thoughts.

* * *

Day 13

Oddly enough, my master had gone and left suddenly. He said something about going shopping one day, but he hadn't been back. Maybe he finally left. If I act fast enough, maybe I can escape before he suspects me of being gone.

* * *

Day 14

Oh, gods, I was wrong. Terribly, horribly, inconsiderably wrong. Master has returned to me, nothing out of the ordinary there. But my master was drenched head to toe in a red substance. It couldn't be..blood? I saw that he was wearing a purple neck wrap around his neck. On his head was a snow hat. Blood seeped down from her head into his shoes. He tilted the head forward like out of one of those western movies. His teeth were stained in the same red hue.

_**"Like my getup?"**_ he asked, _**"got these from sold old broad."**_

I couldn't make much of a response there. I just had to accept that master had taken another life.

* * *

Day 15

Master...is really wearing my mind. I can't sleep out of fear that he would enter my dreams and do whatever with them. After he told me all about these Dreamlands, I could never be too careful. At best, he does reward me with scraps of food for my good behavior. Potato chips. Bread crumbs. Sometimes even food out of the trashcan. I was barely living. More or less, surviving. Master didn't really appear to remotely know what exactly humans ate as each food he encountered perplexed him. Or alternatively, he did know what types of food man could eat but could care less.

But then came a day when he returned home having pulled out a hamburger from one of the fast-food restaurants in town. It was a rotten patty all things considered. It was plausibly a week old because of its rancid smell. The lettuce was glued to the roof of the hamburger's bun; the cheese drizzled down the sides. I did not want to ingest the hamburger, but the master forced me to. I immediately became sick from the first bite. My cheeks swoll up from disgust and I vomited it up in chunks. Some of it got onto the master's shoes. He was not happy with the disrespect.

_**"How dare you defile me like that, you wretched creature!?" **_

I received the worst lashing of my lifetime. He always claimed it only lasted for 30 minutes, but I felt that time itself froze and he relentlessly beat me senseless an infinite number of times. I couldn't process much because my vision suddenly became dark and I lost consciousness. A few hours later, the master threw boiling water on me to wake me up. I need to be more grateful next time.

* * *

Day 16

_**"And where do you think you're going?"**_

Black tentacles wrapped around my body and held me firmly in their grasp. Master was still in the form of my daughter, but tentacles protruded from his back. They were so tightly wrapped around me; I could feel the suckers sharply tug on my skin.

"You don't understand," I said, "I-I was just buying some groceries!"

_**"Liar,"**_ he hissed, _**"I spared you so you could serve me!"**_

Master forbade me from eating as punishment. Any resistance was met with him driving my soul out of my body and physically beating it. I could feel every blunt force my soul was subjected to. It was something that could drive anyone to the brink of insanity.

My soul slammed back into my body at a high speed. My lungs were nearly deflated making my breathing stiff and short. I assumed that he was finished beating me, but then he walked over and kicked me in the side. I rolled over in pain and to shield myself. Master continued to deliver blows to my side until I felt my rib cage fracture from the beatings. Blood was pooling from my mouth. But nevertheless, the master continued with his assault. He mumbled odd remarks with each surge of pain he administered on me.

_**"You're just like your pathetic wife and how she foolishly thought that she could make a deal with me to spare herself!" **_

"Lies! Lies demon!" I shouted. My wife would never sell her own children out to save herself. I was becoming more and more convinced of the lies this beast was spieling.

_**"Your wife was a coward!"** _he laughed and gave me another blow _**"and I am more than willing to have you join her if you don't do what you're told!" **_

He grew bored of beating me and ceased his attacks. His mind was apparently contemplating what else he could do to further his chaos campaign.

* * *

Day 18

We were still without a home having traveled continually every time master unleashed chaos in every town we traveled to. Eventually, we came upon a town in Michigan named Royal Woods. I remember that day well. He turned to look at me demanding that I stood still. Not desiring any further harm, I obeyed. Before my eyes, master transformed again into that goat man and ripped a door away from a house.

There was a family of four: the parents and their two kids. I heard severe rustling from within the home. The first one fell with a loud thud presumably being the father because his wife and children were calling out to him. A child's scream echoed from the house followed by a succession of master's claws swinging in the air.

_**"Come in."**_

I fearfully walked into the house but nearly felt nauseous. Blood drenched the walls with the slain bodies littering the floor. Master was in his humanoid form again, but he had the mother in one of his tentacles.

"What is it?" I asked.

He had a smile on his face. _**"You want to eat again?"**_

My eyes widened. I hadn't eaten in days ever since I tried to escape him. I must've been imagining things, but master seemed to be in an affable mood. That made what he said next equally unnerving. He nonchalantly tossed the mother towards me and a shard of the fragmented door.

_**"Kill her."**_

I looked at the shard in horror. Sure, I was insanely famished, but I would never be that desperate enough to commit murder. But as I was completely my thought, I was leaning over in hunger. I crouched towards the woman my hand shakily grabbing the shard. Hunger was filling my thoughts. The woman seemed to realize what I was intending on doing and attempted to shuffle away, but I grabbed her and pressed down on her. I looked at the master for my next course of action. He nodded and with that, I raised the shard in my hand.

* * *

I shook my head upon hearing Mia call out to me. I stirred awake seeing that I was by my daughter's bedside. She had the same expressionless glare on her face, but I could tell that she was concerned. "Daddy, what's wrong?"

"Oh, uh, nothing princess," I said.

I had to do something to make her more human. Maybe it's because I'm desperate to try to remove any hint of my former master from my life, but I am becoming increasingly worried that something wrong is going on with my daughter.

"Hey, princess," I said, "care to visit the Louds tomorrow?"

She tilted her head in curiosity. She had the faintest memory of the Loud family, well most of her father mentioning them in passing. She shrugged and plopped down onto her bed. I kissed her cheek and quietly exited her room. I couldn't help but hope that Lincoln and the others would accept her.

I could as well hope so.


	5. Meet Mia

Lincoln was sitting in front of the television along with his best friend, Clyde. Clyde was invited to the house earlier by Lincoln. While his dads were understandably paranoid when it came to their son's safety – in part because they were still attempting to recover to the near apocalypse, they nevertheless allowed him to go to the Loud family residence.

"Clyde, you never did tell me how you managed to survive," Lincoln noted.

"Oh, right, that was a crazy story," Clyde replied, "basically my Dads and I found ourselves nearly getting crushed to death by the collapsing ceiling of our house, but these weird bat-things kept the debris from falling on us by shielding us with their wings."

The idea that some of those eldritch beings rather than assist in destroying the neighborhood but saving his best friend and his family of their own volition perplexed Lincoln. As he thought about it more, it could be likely that not every horror out there is inherently malicious. He was tossed out of his thoughts when an explosion is heard upstairs.

"What the what!?"

Without much contemplating, Lincoln leaves his spot on the couch and starts to mad dash upstairs. Clyde, seeing this, also raced after him. As they traveled further up the stairs, thick smoke flowed through the rooms in thick blackness. The two boys coughed and wheezed from the smoke entering their lungs. Lincoln squinted his tear-ridden, irritated eyes for the source of the smoke.

"Dang it."

* * *

Lincoln knew that voice well. He cupped through the smoke to grab Clyde's arm to navigate him through the smoke and into his sister Lisa's room. Lisa grabbed a fan and cleared the smoke away. Both boys took a gulp of fresh air, well in Clyde's case, he had to pull out his inhaler. Lisa was standing by a large dish. Thick clouds of smoke emitted from it.

"Lisa, what in the world happened here?" Lincoln asked.

"Brother unit, remember how next week I have to do a presentation for show and tell?"

"Yes," Lincoln said, "what does this contraption have to do with it?"

Lisa presented the satellite dish to both boys before continuing to speak. "Leni gave me the idea; what if there were a way to transfer information so that everyone can watch the same show."

She could see from the boys' faces that they were slightly underwhelmed. She shrugged in agreement. "Yes, a step-down from my more dedicated experiments, but remember how I accidentally set the kindergarten on fire that one time on accident?"

Lincoln nodded. "Did you hear the news that Patrick is supposed to be coming to pay us a visit?"

"Patrick?" Clyde repeated, "who is Patrick?"

"Some dude we met when Nyarlathotep tried to kill us all," Lincoln answered in a nonchalant fashion.

Lisa looked out the window. "Yeah…said that he was going to bring his daughter so she could socialize…I assume."

* * *

Lisa finished up with her invention and joined Lincoln and the others downstairs. The siblings gathered around in the living room. They were all wearing pots and pans on their bodies as well as holding weapons made from bubble wrap and aluminum. Lincoln looked at them with annoyance. It was like they were blockading themselves for the next April Fool's Day fiasco, but Luan was also heavily armored.

"Guys, I'm sure it will all be fine," Rita said.

"Mom, you do remember that Patrick said he was gonna raise that thing?" Lynn Jr. replied, "need I remind you that thing was the daughter of the Devil?"

"Yes, I remember everything, but Patrick sounded desperate on the phone. He said that he hoped that you guys can help his daughter be more normal."

Normal was not Loud siblings' middle names. Nor was it in their dictionary. At best they can at the least keep Lily from saying swear words, but this was an entirely different species altogether. It would be like trying to teach a dog a new trick. Besides, she was the spawn of Nyarlathotep the demon that took their pet Charles away and brought nothing but pain and suffering to them.

* * *

Twenty minutes passed by when a knock on the door rung out. The Loud siblings huddled together the thought of not answering the door filling their minds. Rita walked to the door and opened it. On the other end was Patrick. He had a nervous smile on his face.

"Patrick, it's been three years! How have you been."

"Oh, it's been fine," Patrick smiled, "at least I'm not eating out of the garbage anymore."

"What have you been eating?" Lana asked. She was cut off when Lola jabbed her in the arm.

"Anyway, where is your daughter?" Rita inquired. She looked around but did not see her.

"She's right here," Patrick replied. He walked out of the way revealing a young girl behind him. She had short-white hair and green, emerald eyes. A black headband was in her hair. Lastly, she had a white top and black skirt. She stood there motionless unsure how to respond.

"This is Mia," Patrick said. He could feel the icy tension in the room.

The family glanced at each other. Mia was like an android in her movements and mannerisms. She appeared paler than even Lucy but was human-like in her physique. She glared at the family with that same dead expression never once blinking. Patrick saw this and grabbed his daughter by the hand and quickly ushered her inside.

"Mind if we sat down?" Patrick asked.

"Sure," Rita said, "kids, make some room for our guests."

* * *

The Loud siblings quickly protested but were met with thinly coated threats of punishment for their disobedience. The elder sisters scotched in the opposite direction of the couch so that Mia could sit in the middle. She plopped down on the couch like a rock hitting the surface of the water.

Lynn Sr. scratched his bald spot contemplating what to say. "So…Patrick, is it?"

Patrick's eyebrows raised. "Yes? What is it?"

"How old is Mia?"

Patrick chuckled a bit, "Can't say, really; she rapidly grew despite being a baby three years ago. Maybe around 8 years old, give or take."

The other pets walked into the room upon hearing the commotion. When they saw Mia, they immediately began to hiss and growl at her. She stared at them with her eyes not breaking the contact. The pets stopped their hostility and were lulled to sleep.

"What was that?" Luna asked.

"Well, it should be clear by now that my daughter isn't normal." The Loud family gave a collective "duh" in response. "At least be grateful she just put them to sleep. More than what I could say about that one poor boy."

"Well, that's nice to hear, what all…wait, what?" Lincoln asked as the realization settled in.

Patrick had a solemn look on his face. "That's what I need your help with; she…kind of drove one of her classmates…kind of crazy."

* * *

Lynn Jr. jumped off the couch. "I told you that this girl was dangerous! Someone, someone, grab-!"

Lori slapped her sister across the face. "Get a hold of yourself, like literally."

"Thanks, Lori," Lynn Jr. said. She then grabbed the collar of Lori's shirt. "But don't do that again."

Patrick cleared his throat to break the ice. "Don't worry, though, Mia didn't do it on purpose; her powers are just starting to develop."

Lincoln tilted his head. "How long was that classmate driven mad?"

Patrick twiddled his fingers to count. "About 2 weeks now."

The other siblings jumped off the couch leaving Lincoln and Mia on it. "Told you she was evil! Evil I tells ya!" Lola shrieked.

"Ultimately, I'm afraid that somehow even though Nyarlathotep is gone, he is resurfacing within my daughter. There has to be a way to keep that from becoming a reality."

Lincoln looked at Mia then back at him. "Well, what do you expect us to do for her?"

"Why, teach her human behavior, of course."

* * *

The Loud kids went silent. Teach her? How could they possibly teach this alien/god/humanoid thing human behavior? They looked collectively at Patrick seeing a glint in his eye. My god, he was being serious. He was going to entrust his anomaly of a daughter into the hands of ordinary kids who often can't get the cat to use the litter-box. He was putting so much pressure on them they felt slightly guilty to ever consider dashing his hopes.

"Well, it's settled," Rita said, "my children will each teach your daughter something about human nature."

"MOM!" the kids screamed. They were still mulling over their options, but their mother had made their decision for them. But she gave another threatening stare at them quickly shutting them up.

"Excellent!" Patrick remarked, "may I leave her in your care for a week?"

Mia turned and glared at the Loud kids once more not blinking. The Loud kids gulped anxiously.

Oh _boy_. This was going to be fun.


	6. Awkward Dinner

"This is Channel 14," a news station blared out. The anchorwoman spoke again. "This is just in: two overly obese men have just been found a few miles away from each other. Witnesses said that they were carrying papers at the time there was a chance encounter with vehicles. They were said to have been muttering something about a Yellow Sign."

The anchorwoman stopped momentarily when someone whispered to her off screen.

"Yes, yes; investigators have just taken the papers that have what the victims claim to be their holy symbol and are working to decipher it. They say that whatever befell the men had to do with the sign but are approaching it with great caution. They believe the sign is linked to a cult that some claim had infiltrated our little town of Royal Woods."

* * *

Hastur fumed in his lair and walked back and forth in anger. His minions were paralyzed with fear standing glued in place out of fear of saying something that might upset him. His colossal hands formed fists. Hastur's mandibles clattered loudly; without warning, Hastur slammed his fist on the side of a wall shattering glass. His expressionless mask glared at his minions his disgust being hidden away behind hollow eyes.

"My colonization of this pathetic rock is taking longer than I have anticipated."

The minions remained silent to continue listening to Hastur's ranting. Hastur tilted his mask to look at his minions. Anger was bubbling from deep within his body. He went to one of his bloated, limb-broken minions and knelt to his level. Sweat trickled down the minion's forehead.

"Haven't you anything to tell me?"

The minion gulped. "We have at least three people to account for; they did their best to share your sign."

Hastur's skeletal finger extended to point at the minion in accusing fashion. "Is that all you have to say on the matter?"

The skeletal index finger inched closer towards the minion. He clamped his eyes shut afraid of what his master would do with him next. Hastur lightly tapped him on his chest. The minion slowly opened his eyes in realization that he was still intact. A smile spread across his face alongside a nervous chuckle.

"Thank you, master."

The other minions raised their eyebrows in surprise as the collective wave of relief washed over them. Their panic slowly subsided to them laughing nervously alongside the minion. Their laughter quieted down; a dreaded silence was now in the air. The minion noticed them ceasing their laughter and was now alarmed.

"What? What is it?"

* * *

He began to cough unprovoked. What started as slight coughs evolved into wheezing. A hot liquid was seeping into his lungs shortening his breath. Hastur sat on his throne in silence indifferent to his minion's suffering. The minion leaned forward now firmly holding his stomach. Something was not siting well within him. Worse, it was building itself out of his stomach wall. Thick globs of yellow tumors exploded from his stomach. Tumors were forming all over his body and ripping through the seams. Tumors burst through his eyes blinding him. More came out of his ears and mouth. Yet, somehow, his murmured screams still rung through. Even when he was reduced to nothing more than a lifeless mass of tumors.

"Anymore questions?" Hastur asked not even granting his minions a moment's chance to calm down.

They remained silent once more. Hastur tapped the arm of his throne in deep thought. He took his skinny fingers and tapped the chin of his mask. A hollow tap echoed throughout the abandoned mall. There had to be someway for him to further his colonization he thought.

The doors to the mall slammed open even catching the Great Old One off guard.

"Master! I know what Yog-Sothoth is doing!"

It was another one of Hastur's obese minions. From the urgency in his voice and his wheezing, he had run quite a long mile to get to Hastur. His legs had long since given out and he fell between the doors. Hastur's scheming took a backslide in accordance to the news. His minions quickly stepped out of the way once they heard him getting up from his throne.

"This is most interesting in deed."

* * *

After Patrick left Mia in the hands of the Loud family, they began to have dinner. They added a chair to the table and goaded Mia to sit in it. She sat between Lincoln and Lucy. She still lacked the ability to blink further acting like a robot. Soon, Lynn Sr. came in and placed the food on the table.

"Um…okay, so let's dig in," Lynn Sr. said to break the ice.

The food was passed out, but the Loud siblings still couldn't help but feel the awkwardness of the situation. As they ate, Rita decided to say something to ease the tension.

"Anything exciting happened for you, Lana?" she asked.

"Well, I found some green chicken at some fast-food joint," Lana said, "must've been a week old at the least."

The family dropped their eating utensils. Lana rolled her eyes in annoyance. "What? I didn't eat it; I do have standards you know."

The family continued to eat, but the thought of the molded chicken was still fresh in their minds. It made eating nearly impossible for them to do, yet somehow they pressed on. Rita turned to Lisa for desperate assistance with changing the subject.

"So, Lisa," she said, "what are you planning for show and tell again?"

"It's quite intriguing, mother," Lisa began, "you see, it has to do-"

_Crunch_.

The family spun around in shock from the sound. They saw that it came from Mia. She remained silent for a long duration of their time eating in silence. At first, they assumed that she was finally eating with them, but instead they raised their eyebrows perplexed. She was loudly munching down on her fork. She already took a large chunk from it. Come to think of it, they never once caught a glimpse of her teeth. Upon closer inspection, she had not even touched a piece of her food.

"What the hey hey!" Lola screamed.

Mia turned to look at the family with her nearly hypnotic green eyes. "This is good."

* * *

"Great the first thing she says upon coming here and she says that the fork tastes good," Lori groaned.

They stood there in shock, but they decided to continue eating without any further disruption. After eating, the family moved to the living room to watch an episode of _The Dream Boat_. Mia sat directly in front of the television seemingly glued in place.

"You'll burn your eyes out if you do that," Lola warned.

"Well, at least we stopped her from eating the rest of the forks and any other utensil," Lynn Sr. noted.

Lisa seized the opportunity to explain her plans to her family. Some of the siblings did show some interest in it, though they also did share the sentiment that it felt less spectacular than Lisa's other endeavors.

"So, you're saying that if this comes through the rest of the world will be watching the same show we are?" Luna asked.

"That's the attempted purpose, yes," Lisa said.

"You have a week or about two at most to do it, right?" Lynn Jr. said, "that seems to be a lot to ram with little time."

Lisa nodded in agreement. "A hassle, yes, but I feel that it will be worth it."

Mia rolled to her side in curiosity. "You build things?"

* * *

Lisa was taken a back at first not expecting some robotic person like her to take an interest in what she did. "Well by things you mean experiments…then yes."

Mia rolled over to Lisa's spot on the couch. Now she's acting like some sort of pet. A cat even. Naturally not endearing in the slightest. "What about dreams?"

"Dreams?" Lisa said, "well I could build something to tap into the subconscious mind I assume that's what you're suggesting."

Lincoln felt concerned. "Why are you asking that, Mia?"

Mia looked at him with a stern, yet bewildered expression. Her once stoic face was now alive with color. Her lower lip was quivering. "Because _he_ wants me to hurt Daddy."


	7. Into Mia's Mind

The family stood in surprise unsure of what to do next. Mia was suddenly alive with emotion and inconsolable.

"Him? As in Nyarlathotep?" Lincoln asked.

"He appears in my dreams telling me to hurt Daddy, to hurt others," Mia replied.

Lisa scratched her head. "That's preposterous, if I recall precisely, Patrick destroyed him soundly."

"Maybe he pretended to be dead and is now taking out his anger on Mia?" Lincoln suggested.

Whatever the case, the situation was dire. Lisa took the rest of the day to work on a device that could tap into Mia's subconscious mind. Mia continued to be frightful, making the circumstances even more cumbersome and unbearable. Loud screeching was erupting from Mia's mouth compelling the Loud family to cower before her.

"She's not shutting up," Lori groaned.

"Not even Lily cries that much," Lynn Jr. noted, "and Lisa's crying doesn't make me wish my soul died."

The family pets were dashing about in confusion. They tried burying their heads into the sofa to drown out Mia's crying and screaming. Lisa raced into the room at around 9 PM; her ears were packed tightly with cotton. "In all things factual and logical, please someone make her stop!"

* * *

The sisters touched their noses simultaneously and shrieked "Not it" in unison. Lincoln, as usual, was always the one who acted last. He growled at his sisters in annoyance but scratched his chin deep in thought. "Well, anytime I want to unwind, I drink a warm glass of milk."

"That's an insane idea that may be insane enough to work," Lisa noted.

They turned to look at Lynn Sr. Their glare made him jump anxiously. Clearly, he did not want to do it, but there was no other way. He went to the kitchen and poured milk into a glass. Placing it into the microwave, he set it to 30 minutes. Lynn Sr. tapped his fingers on the flat surface of the counter.

"Dad, get the milk quick!"

Lynn Sr. erased the time on the microwave and dashed into the room. "I'm here with…what in tarnation!?"

Black tentacles erupted from Mia's arms and lower body. In each of her black, inky tentacles was Lynn Sr.'s children and wife. Mia's eyes were glazed over after her pupils rolled to the back of her head. Her mouth was seeping that same black ooze. Lynn Sr. was stunned at first petrified in place from the shock and horror. Lincoln spoke up.

"What are you waiting for!? Give her the milk!"

* * *

Lynn Sr. unfroze and ran over to the couch. He grabbed hold of Mia's thrashing head nearly getting bitten by her needle-like teeth. For a seeming young girl, she was vastly stronger than he was. All he could do was hold her back as much as he could with his hands. But even then, his grip was diminishing ever so slowly.

"DAD, HURRY!" Lori shouted.

Lynn Sr. almost dropped the glass but regained his grasp of it. He upturned the glass and poured the hot drink into Mia's mouth. Mia's thrashing lessened. Her tentacles shrunk back to form her legs. The Loud siblings and Rita fell on the floor with a soft thud.

"Great, the little demon is finally asleep," Lynn Jr. groaned.

Luna and Luan grabbed both ends of Mia's body and walked upstairs with it. "Are you sure that you want her here?" Luna asked Lisa as she and Luan situated Mia on Lisa's bed. Lisa placed a series of wires on Mia's head. She then turned on a monitor revealing Mia's brain waves.

"Einstein's ghost!" Lisa remarked, "just what is this girl?"

"How are we going to get into her head?" Luna asked.

Lisa snapped her fingers. "Through this."

She walked towards a large object covered with a purple sheet. "Luna, give me a drumroll!"

"You got it, sis!" Luna dashed out of the room and ran back in with a drum. She started to deliver a beat.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I present you with the Dreamcatcher," Lisa announced. She removed the sheet to reveal a round, doughnut-shaped machine. It was yellow and situated on a large stand. It was connected to some of the wires that were attached to Mia's head. Lisa grabbed a remote and activated the machine. A blue portal manifested.

* * *

"What is this?" Lincoln asked.

"This will take us into Mia's mind, brother," Lisa answered.

"Who's gonna go in there?" Leni asked.

"Obviously not me, since I am the one who's manhandling the Dreamcatcher."

The sisters did their unanimous "not it" trick again. Lincoln looked at them with more ire. "Oh, no, no, no, you are not getting a free pass this time, Lincoln growled."

Lincoln, Lucy, and Lynn Sr. entered the portal and saw that the world around them had grown darker and more surreal. The world resembled their own but there were some schisms here and there. Lisa spoke through a transmitter she gave Lincoln.

"Lincoln, report."

"Yeah, we're here, Lisa, just waiting for step two."

"Alright. Now, look for the source of what's triggering Mia's panic attacks."

They traversed further into the dark world seeing the further differences between Mia's dream world and the real world. From what they could see, they were in some replica of Mia and Patrick's house as it clearly was not theirs.

"We're not finding anything, Lincoln," Lynn Jr. said.

"Lisa said something about the mind being like rows of files with memories tucked inside," Lucy explained.

They went upstairs and much like Lucy said, there were several cabinets. Lynn Jr., without much conviction, ran over to the cabinets and opened them. She grabbed several files and pried them open. The files flew into the air each documenting a moment in Mia's history. Some of them were relatively minor in detail: Patrick raising her from the time she was a baby. Even then, however, she drastically got older and taller in comparison to the other children of her age group. Before they could comment on it, they saw what Patrick had mentioned earlier of his daughter unintentionally driving one of her classmates insane. But there was more to that than what he had initially told. A raspy voice droned out, an indiscernible, aging tune.

"_Do it. Harm him."_

* * *

They then saw a silhouette of Mia floating aimlessly through each of the open files. The siblings called out to her, but she continued to float. Seeing that yelling to her wasn't getting anywhere, Lincoln and his sisters ran after her.

"Wait, hang on, Mia!" Lincoln screamed.

They ran faster after Mia. Further and further they got into the house until they saw that Mia stopped in front of a window. Lincoln sighed a breath of relief and dashed towards her. Lucy and Lynn Jr.'s eyes widened in horror when they saw the window disappear along with a section of the house.

"Lincoln look out!"

Lincoln turned to look at them in confusion, but when he did, he tripped and fell off the edge. In desperation, he clung onto a nailed floorboard. The house was now on top of a large cliff. Lincoln struggled to regain solid ground. Sweat fell profusely from his forehead and trickled down his body and into his socks. His grip was now lessening. "Guys!"

"Lincoln, don't worry, Lucy and I are gonna save you!" Lynn Jr. exclaimed. The two ran towards their brother but some invisible force bounced them back. Lynn Jr. got up and hit the space around her. "What the?"

"Happy to see you all again," the voice said.

* * *

"I recognize that voice," Lucy said with hatred emanating from her lips.

"Oh, little Lucy, you were always on top of your game; it's a pity I didn't go to you first to give you my book."

The darkness of the world gathered itself and formed the image of the Black Pharaoh. His smile was spread across his face revealing rows upon rows of rigid teeth. But by his side was another figure, smaller than he was. It was Mia, but she had a look of despair on her face.

"Nyarlathotep!" Lynn Jr. announced, "what are you doing here?"

Nyarlathotep chuckled. "Oh, consider me gone, but only my physical body had been destroyed by the Necronomicon."

"That still doesn't make much sense," Lucy said, "we saw all of your avatars get destroyed."

"You simple humans compound me!" Nyarlathotep boasted, "My progeny is an extension of myself with all my memories instilled within her. I may now be nothing more than a shadow on the world whose name no longer strikes fear into the hearts of you miserable, pitiable humans, but I live on through my daughter."

Lynn Jr. popped her knuckles. "Well, we will stop you! We stopped you once, we can do it again!"

* * *

"Oh, there is that feeling again. Hope, I say? Hope is a very odd concept, even in my standards. Hope is nothing more than a false sense of desires against a meaningless world and a pitiless universe. All that exists is despair; that feeling of being completely naked and exposed to the universe. Those that fall into despair are at a loss for what to do. Despair is the most enigmatic of feelings. I have devoted all my years – from serving that Blind Idiot – to spread the joy of despair to all sapient life."

"You're insane!" Lincoln answered.

Nyarlathotep laughed. "Man was always my favorite toy; when I first was spawned from my father, I was nameless like any child not knowing who I wanted to be. Then was when I saw the first of your species commit a horrid act."

"What are you talking about?" Lucy asked.

"It was of two men getting into a fight over one stealing their hunt; the first man got his legs smashed by the other's club. He continued to smash him until he was an unrecognizable paste. That look of fear and anguish on the man's face filled me. From there, I knew who I was. From that day onward, I became Nyarlathotep."

Lincoln's shoe loosened from his foot and fell off the cliff. "Don't go giving us that story, Nyarlathotep! You were evil the moment Azathoth gave birth to you."

Nyarlathotep's shadow shrugged. "Maybe so. Now, Mia, do away with him."

Mia's shadow walked over to Lincoln and bent down at his eye level. Her eyes glowed an eerie white. Lincoln anxiously shook his head. "Please, don't do this!"

"Do it, Mia," Nyarlathotep sneered, "do it for Daddy."

* * *

Something stirred awake within Mia. After looking at Lincoln for a few more seconds, Mia looked at Nyarlathotep. "I'm not like you."

Nyarlathotep's smirk disappeared transforming into a scowl. "What was that?"

Mia stood up. "My name is Mia, and I have a Daddy, and it is not you."

Nyarlathotep's smile returned. "Such a bother! I hoped that you would wipe out that miserable rock for me, but at the least I know that Cthulhu will do that for me."

"Ha! Cthulhu is dead ya doofus!" Lynn Jr. laughed.

"Ah, you are half-right, man-girl," Nyarlathotep answered, "have you any idea that I foresaw it?"

Lincoln's grip was weakening more. His fingers gradually let go of the board, all that was left being his pinky finger. It was starting to hurt from the weight of his body. He could feel splinters enter his finger. Mia stood in front of Lincoln defiantly.

"Regardless, Cthulhu lives, and I will enjoy it immensely. All of the despair on the collective looks on mankind as they see everyone they love and hold dear erases in front of their faces. It's so cathartic!"

Nyarlathotep lunged at Lincoln to speed up his fall. Before he could get his long fingers around him, Mia jumped on him. Nyarlathotep's eyes widened in surprise. "What! No, wait!"

A bright light filled the dark world engulfing them all. Lincoln, Lucy, and Lynn Jr. fell on the solid ground of Lisa's room. Mia was wide awake, but in her hands, she was holding a pure black octopus. It wriggled in her grip whilst grabbing onto her fingers with its sharp suction cups. Mia turned her right hand in a quick fashion, applying enough pressure on the octopus that it exploded between her hands. A black, inky substance dripped on the floor. The family was again unsure of what had just happened. Mia turned to look at them and smiled.

"Got any more forks? I'm starving."


	8. The Good Doctor

"What are you doing, Dr. Moist?"

The doctor rolled his eyes in irritation. He always received that question whenever he was doing one of his procedures. Strapped to a surgical bed was his most recent test subject, an elderly man who was blind for a large duration of his life. His limbs were elongated and bent in inhuman direction. Five tubes protruded through different orifices of his body. The man cried out in pulsating pain, but his screams did not deter the doctor.

"Another failure. Gentlemen, you know what to do."

Three burly men walked in grabbing hold of the surgical bed. Each having scowls on their faces, they ignore the man's protesting and pushed the surgical bed out of the room. Dr. Moist was a thin, skeletal man of short frame. He scratched what little hair he had left on his exposed cranium and removed his glasses. His eyes were void of whiteness just a black void in place of it. He heard the man scream bloody murder when he was being sent further down the halls. One of the large men stopped at a door and extended his hand. A loud drone creaked from the door; a deep, putrid smell reeked.

"Well, here you go," the man chuckled. The three men collected the elderly man and tossed him into the room. Falling with a thud, the man was alone in a dark room. He slowly picked himself up trying to cup around to get some idea of where he was. Worming his way around, he felt something solid underneath him. His hands wrapped around something roughly his size. Something moist. The man probed the object further and sunk his fingers deeper into the moistness. From his surroundings, he made out it was a slimy material. A tongue. His eyes widened in terror from the realization. The door slammed shut with the three men scurrying away.

* * *

The old man was standing on top of the lifeless bodies of all of Dr. Moist's previous test subjects. They were all broken down from all the good doctor's experimentation. Weeks, sometimes months even. Day after day, droves of test subjects were taken to be subjected as guinea pigs for Dr. Moist's bizarre experiments. They were carefully selected often for defects such was the case for the old man; all with the false promise of being healed of their ailments.

They all relied on Dr. Moist's hand when he was recommended to them. With each of his subjects he injected them with some peculiar blue substance. They were overcome by a bubbling sensation before sharp tubes broke through their skin along with stubby bat-wings and eyes. If they failed the doctor's sharp judgment, they were discarded in the room alongside all the others and remained there until they either died as a result of the botched experiments, or starvation.

Dr. Moist returned to his study to test the potency of his chemical. Sitting down in his chair, he withdrew a clipboard and skimmed through it. "Day 30," he said to himself, "guinea pig lasted for thirty days; a new record."

He wrote a red line across the name of the elderly man; for all he was concerned, he was already dead. Placing his pen back on the smooth surface of his desk, he went to stand up but couldn't help but feel he was being watched.

"Who's there?"

* * *

He walked out of his study to see many of his staff had been wantonly massacred. Seven bodies were scattered along the flood in eviscerated pieces. One man bloodied and beaten was firmly in the grasp of the King in Yellow. The man's face was beaten end senselessly with both of his eyes blackened and his front teeth missing. Hastur sensed Dr. Moist staring at him and turned so he could stare at his hollow mask.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Dr. Moist," he said it in a singsong tune oddly conveying that Hastur was happy despite of his normal demeanor. Dr. Moist noticed that he put a lot of emphasize on the word "pleasure" and stretched it out into a series of clicking noises undoubtedly from his mandibles nibbling his mask. His skeletal frame shifted and contorted to further display his other-worldliness. He was so detached from his surroundings, he paid seemingly no attention to the gagging screams from the man as his windpipe was crushed underneath his grasp.

"Lord Hastur?" Dr. Moist said, "I was told that you had died three years ago when Nyarlathotep was defeated."

Hastur chuckled. "I fear my death was greatly exaggerated; I recalled myself towering over that sunken city anticipating for my wretched brother to emerge so I could wage war with him. I reduced his followers to rubble. Hundreds of charred bodies piled one on the other. Their screams and the smell of their burning bodies was invigorating. But then there came a surge of power that overpowered me: before I even knew it, I was back on my planet and remained there until now."

Dr. Moist nodded his head understandably. "But from what I have heard, Cthulhu was killed by Shub-Niggurath."

Hastur pulled out a bloodied cloth from thin air and presented it before him. "No; this is the blood of Cthylla. He has been reborn. And Yog-Sothoth has him all to himself."

* * *

There were the ever-smallest murmurs amongst the different races that Cthulhu would be reborn hence Hastur's urgency at trying to have Cthylla killed. He was almost certain that his half-brother would be at full size if he hesitated.

"What do you expect of me, Hastur?" Dr. Moist asked at last.

While he couldn't see it for himself, he could tell that Hastur was smiling at the question. "Ever since I was born, I knew that it was my destiny to rule over this world and subjugate mankind as my eternal slaves. I have already tried using my sign, but it is not spreading my influence as much as I like."

"Well, when you have my years of experience, you can do just about anything," Dr. Moist replied.

"Which is why I am entrusting you with helping me accomplish my ambition."

Dr. Moist scratched his head again. He looked down at the dead bodies around them and cupped his chin in deep thought. "Alright; I will help you with your goal, but I must inquire something of you."

Hastur dropped the lifeless corpse on the floor. "Elaborate."

"In return for my service, I want you to support my research."

Hastur paused momentarily and tapped his mask with his bony finger. "It is a deal; as long as you do as I tell you; I will help you with your mediocre research."

He stretched his hand out to Dr. Moist. That by itself intimidated the doctor slightly, but he was confident that the King in Yellow would keep his promise. He went to say something but quickly fell to the ground in pain. His hand was still firmly in Hastur's hand. Dr. Moist squirmed and attempted to pry it away from the Great Old One to no avail. Hastur released his grip and dropped Dr. Moist. Dr. Moist looked down at his hand and saw Hastur's Yellow Sign imbedded in his palm.

"Remember this, good doctor," he said, "you are now tethered to me as with everyone else under the influence of it; betray me, and this sign will surely destroy you."

Dr. Moist gulped but tried to have a straight face. "Yes, my lord."

* * *

Pleased, Hastur manifested a few mirrors and pushed Dr. Moist towards them. "To accomplish this plan, I have my minions' information that in this town of Royal Woods, there is a girl who may have the answer to my dreams."

Dr. Moist looked at one mirror and saw Lisa Loud building a large contraption. "How will this help, my lord?"

"She had planned on making some...tel-ee-vision…whatever it is global," Hastur explained, "with this device, I can transport my Yellow Sign worldwide and everyone that sees it will be possessed by my power. Millions – nay billions – of meatbags reduced to blobby, sluggish servants indebted to my rule."

"Very good, my lord," Dr. Moist said.

"Of course!" Hastur remarked. He turned his attention towards another mirror and a scowl formed beneath his mask. He could see Cthulhu, now reasonably bigger, wiping out Shoggoths with his powers. Two spontaneously combusted. Hastur could see Yog-Sothoth in the background emotionlessly watching her adopted son's performance. Hastur turned toward Dr. Moist.

"But first, we should get you some test subjects. Shall we?"


	9. A Traitor Among Us

Young Cthulhu came along extraordinarily well because of Yog-Sothoth's training. Having started off with fearfully facing off against shoggoth after shoggoth, all the constant pain and misery was showing that he was adapting quickly something that his mother would've always wanted. The last of the Shoggoths pitifully burned away as Cthulhu used his godly powers to end its existence. Yog-Sothoth stood firmly on a boulder with his hands cupped in his black cloak.

"Very good, my son, you have done a very good job," Yog-Sothoth said. He levitated off the mountain and removed his hood exposing his singular eye and short, black hair.

Young Cthulhu wiggled his tentacles to indicate that he was pleased by his compliment; it was something he never heard his adoptive mother ever say those words. "Thank you, mother; it is all because of you."

Yog-Sothoth remained emotionless and glared at the Deep Ones surrounding Young Cthulhu. "I sense that there is a traitor among us."

* * *

Young Cthulhu's eyes widened. The Deep Ones stammered amongst themselves alarmed at the Outer God's accusations. They tumbled over each other in desperation over who was the alleged traitor. Young Cthulhu looked back at his mother. "Mother, what are you saying?" He covered his face in fear that Yog-Sothoth would strike him for his insolence.

"I know this is a sudden allegation, but you ought to believe me because nothing is hidden from me," Yog-Sothoth replied. He walked to the Deep Ones in an authoritative manner. They cowered before him.

"Who is it?" he asked. He put immense emphasize on the last word deliberately to make them even more intimidated. He leaned closely at one of the Deep Ones. It gulped nervously in response.

"Have you betrayed us?" he asked.

The Deep One shook violently. "No, my, lord! I have served you earnestly! I would never..!"

Yog-Sothoth grabbed the Deep One and wrung its neck. The Deep One's squirming, once wild and frantic, was drained from his body. Yog-Sothoth tossed the body aside like a rag doll in a remorseless manner. Panic and mad grief washed over the remaining Deep Ones.

* * *

"Mother…you killed him," Young Cthulhu remarked.

"I had to, my son," Yog-Sothoth replied in his perpetual stoical tone, "but someone sold out our whereabouts to Hastur."

Yog-Sothoth turned his glare to the Deep Ones. Many a Deep One prayed fervently for their patron god Father Dagon to deliver them, but their prayers fell on deaf ears for their god was long dead. Yog-Sothoth singled out a pudgy Deep One and stared intensely at him. "Are you the betrayer?"

The Deep One looked at his fallen comrade and breathed slowly. Whether he was being truthful or not wasn't the issue, so he thought up whatever popped up in his mind. "You must understand, Yog-Sothoth, that when Hastur first approached me about his half-brother, I…I panicked so I had to tell him something! Please, please have mercy on me!"

What Yog-Sothoth did next was surprising. He raised his hand in a striking position but instead tentatively caressed the back of his head. "Is that so?"

Yog-Sothoth called Young Cthulhu over to him. Young Cthulhu obeyed and stood by his mother's side. He was as confused as the fat Deep One was. "What is your bidding, mother?" he finally asked to break the silence.

"Kill him," Yog-Sothoth replied.

The Deep One's fears began anew, and he was trying to free himself from Yog-Sothoth's grasp but the Outer God firmly kept him from escaping. Young Cthulhu shook his head in disbelief not even beginning to comprehend what Yog-Sothoth wanted him to do. He would do anything for his mother; if his mother ordered something, then he'd execute it without haste. But the Shoggoths were an entirely different subject matter: they lacked full sapience that he and the Deep Ones possessed, but this was murder they were talking about.

* * *

"Mother," Young Cthulhu began, "you know I serve you with my full heart, but these are our subjects, so shouldn't we – "

Yog-Sothoth's hand swung through the air and connected with Young Cthulhu's face. This caught him off guard forcing him to kneel on the ground from the stinging sensation. He winced sharply with moisture filling in his eye ducts. Yog-Sothoth dropped the Deep One in front of his knees. The Deep One was still in his begging position.

"I will do much worse if you continue to disobey my demands," Yog-Sothoth bluntly stated, "so by all means, do it."

Young Cthulhu looked at the Deep One crying its eyes out as his pleas for mercy became deeper and more hurt. He looked at Yog-Sothoth again. He placed his hood back over his black hair leaving only his bangs visible. Yog-Sothoth formed a fist with one hand and hit it against his open palm with it in a slow, methodical fashion. A frown formed beneath the mass of tentacles obscuring his mouth. He truly had no other choice. He raised his fist in the air and slammed it hard on the Deep One's cranium. The fishy humanoid's protest became garbled. He momentarily grasped Young Cthulhu's arm but lost hold of it from his loss of blood. Young Cthulhu brought his colossal fist down again on the Deep One and once more until he was nothing more but mangled remains.

Four Deep Ones were brought before Yog-Sothoth and like the other two, they were asked thoroughly by the Watcher of the Gate if they were working with Hastur. Some claimed that they met with Hastur in the woods or that he appeared in their dreams to divide them. Like with the others, they were carelessly slaughtered by Young Cthulhu's immense strength. Two were brought in and they claimed that they met one of his followers while collecting supplies for Yog-Sothoth.

* * *

As with the others that stood accused, they two claimed that they were threatened into admittance such as being made into Hastur's blobby, broken slaves a fate that many a species or Old One feared. Nevertheless, they were all senselessly dismembered at the feet of Yog-Sothoth. Young Cthulhu nearly vomited from the strong scent of inhuman smell. He shed a single tear for them. They were not just servants, but they also contributed greatly to raising him. They were family. And now there he was senselessly killing them on allegations that may or may not be true.

By the time he was through, bodies were tossed into piles before Yog-Sothoth. Throughout all the events, Yog-Sothoth maintained that same look of disinterest on his face. At the corner of his eye, he saw a few Deep Ones running through the brushes leaving the ones close to death to their own devices. Young Cthulhu caught them escaping.

"Mother! They're escaping! Should I.."

Yog-Sothoth raised his hand silencing him. "That will do, my son. That will do."

* * *

Young Cthulhu wanted to protest again, but he stumbled on his words when he remembered how hard the slap was. Instead, he knelt over the bodies of the slain Deep Ones and lightly mourned them. His wings flapped slowly every now and then. Yog-Sothoth motionlessly stood behind him. He scratched his chin in deep thought. "I should tell him that the third Deep One he killed was the real traitor, but I sense this will help my cause in the long run."

Towards the end of the day, three Deep Ones emerged from the bushes having hidden away from Young Cthulhu and Yog-Sothoth for hours. One of them peeked their heads out of the bush with his eyes darting around. "The coast is clear, guys."

The other two emerged from their hiding place with caution. "What the hell happened back there?" one asked, "why would Yog-Sothoth turn her own son against us?"

"I don't know, but at the least we made it," another Deep One said. He was trying to say this in a reassuring manner, but he couldn't deny that they lost several for no good reason. Before he could say something else, he found himself floating in the air. He looked at his two comrades for an explanation, but they stood glued to the ground in fear. He could see why. Hastur towered behind him in his King in Yellow form. To his side was Dr. Moist and a few of his bloated minions who frothed at the mouth in demented lunacy.

"Such a pity that Cthulhu won't be here to witness this, but I'll relish your screams as long as I can. Don't fear: I've arranged for a few Deep Ones to be imported to me from Insmouth. You'll meet them soon."

The Deep One felt Hastur's eldritch power surge through his body through his gills. His comrades looked on in horror and were cornered by Hastur's minions and Dr. Moist. Yellow wads of tumors erupted from his stomach and ripped through his body. The last thing he saw before he took his final gulp of air was pure yellow.


	10. Once in a Lifetime Opportunity

Show-and-tell was nearing the corner for Lisa. After a few test runs, she was confident that it would go off without a hitch. Or at the very least, it wouldn't ne as disastrous as some of her other inventions. Her mother called her down to tell her that breakfast was ready, and she started her way downstairs. Mia was eating the forks as per usual, but the family had since become accustomed to it. She was especially developing an attachment to Lily and twirled a few tentacles she protruded from her back to entertain the young Loud. Lynn Sr. was cooking pancakes and placed three on Lisa's plate. "Thanks."

As the family sat down to eat breakfast, the news blared on announcing the discovery of a mysterious sign. An anchorman appeared and began to summarize the investigation. "This is just in: this Yellow Sign that was found at the site of a tragic accident involving some morbidly obese man is still going on. The man had been identified as Mr. Scott Beverly; for whatever reason, this formerly fit man appeared to gain weight practically overnight. He was reported to have been raving madly about this sign and that his master assigned him with spreading the word of the sign. His limbs were apparently already broken when he was struck by the assailant's car, and strange reptilian scales were found all over his body. More at 8."

Lincoln mulled over his plate of pancakes. He was picking around his food and stuck his fork into the soft pancakes but let it drop again. The hot syrup was spilling over the edges of the plate and dripping onto the floor. "Lincoln, what's wrong?" Lori asked.

"I'm just still thinking about what Nyarlathotep meant by saying that he was responsible for Cthulhu's resurrection."

"Lincoln, he's been dead for literally a long time," Lori emphasized, "We all saw him evaporate back then."

"So, Cthulhu's alive, big deal," Lynn Jr. interjected, "what's there to it?"

"Cthulhu and his forces wiped out a city on Nyarlathotep's orders," Lincoln said, "am I the only one concerned about his return?"

Debates about whether Cthulhu getting reborn also correlated to the strange Yellow Sign that was discovered at the site of a hit and run continued without end for a few more seconds until Rita slammed her hand on the table. "Guys, guys; if Cthulhu is alive, we'll cross that bridge when it comes. Right now, we should just enjoy the rest of our time together in peace."

* * *

They nodded in agreement and resumed eating. Unbeknownst to them, they were now under the watchful eye of the King in Yellow himself. Hastur sat on his makeshift crown with his hands in the form of a pyramid. He also had his eyes around the other areas of the house. He spied on the device that Lisa had constructed coveting it. "In no time short, it will be mine," he vowed.

However, there had to be a way that he could infiltrate the Loud family house unannounced. He couldn't just send his fleet of fat, frothing minions to invade the house; that would gather too much-unwanted attention. Hastur scratched at his mask lucidly and beastly a fashion. His mandible chattered beneath the palette mask. Dr. Moist couldn't help but be unnerved by the alien sounds bouncing off Hastur's mask. Sure enough, Hastur always scratched at his mask savagely; he had this sort of fixation with the mask that one time when a small slash was made on the cheek of the mask, Hastur slaughtered an entire room of his minions. Dr. Moist liked to speculate that what little sanity Hastur had left was being locked away behind his mask but there was no sure-fire way to test that hypothesis.

"Lord Hastur," Dr. Moist said as cautiously as he could, "mind if I make an observation?"

"Make it quick, or you'll regret wasting my time," Hastur said.

Dr. Moist gulped nervously. "This Lisa girl actually reminds me a lot of myself when I was a kid."

Hastur waved his hand to indicate for Dr. Moist to continue. "What if I were to show her some of my technology and that would convince her to help our cause?"

Hastur laughed at the proposal. "How are you intending on doing that?"

Dr. Moist nodded understandably at his reasonable critique. "I'll explain more if you allow me to convince her to help us."

Hastur shrugged his shoulders. He was still convinced it was a lost cause, but it was at least humorous to see Dr. Moist try. "When you meet with this human girl, do not tell her about my name or even allude to my plans. Need I remind you that because of your deal with me you are now apart of my body? With my influence I can will you to self-destruct if the situation presents itself."

Dr. Moist understood completely. Besides, he'd be stupid enough to slip up and lose his newly acquired test subjects from Insmouth if he were to accidentally say who he was working for. The plot was relatively easy: he would introduce himself to the young genius and after showing off some of his tech, that would make Lisa fascinated enough to want to see more of it. Maybe even study it more. Once that happens, he would see to it that her device would be robbed from under her nose and then use it to transmit Hastur's Yellow Sign throughout the world to terraform all of the inhabitants who had witnessed it.

* * *

The Loud kids were playing outside and showing Mia some new tricks. She was adjusting relatively well to human behavior…but had a few quirks. When Lana was playing frisbee with her, Mia was unsure of what to do with it; when it came within her direction, she was glued in place, and it bounced off her forehead and ricocheted off it and bisected the neighbor's bushes. "Okay, let's just save that for later."

"At least you tried, Mia," Lincoln said reassuringly.

Lola drove in her toy car while Lana rolled around in the mud to find a few worms. They were plump and slimy. Exactly how she liked them. She opened her mouth expectantly to accept the earthworms, but Rita takes the worms away. Lana crosses her arms angrily. "Hey, that was my snack, Mom!"

"Not right now, Lana, we have a guest over."

"Is Patrick back now?" Luna asked.

Rita sternly shook her head. With that, they were ushered back into the house. They saw the smaller framed, bespectacled man. He was now deathly skinny, so skeletal in fact, his lab coat lazily was placed on his body, but was loose enough that it nearly couldn't fit on his body. He had a sinister aura to him. For whatever reason, his eyes were obscured making it impossible for them to see his pupils. He stood by the door with a look of mundane.

"Please, don't make me feel unwelcome in your house," he said reassuringly. Or at least as much as he could muster. The Loud siblings nevertheless felt more suspicious of his presence. Lynn Sr. chuckled nervously to kill the suspense. Mia and the Loud family's pets sensed something amiss with the man and stared daggers at him.

"Sorry that you're receiving kind of a…bad reception, uh, mister…"

"Moist," Dr. Moist answered, "Dr. Moist if you please."

The family looked at each other for a long time. "So, what can we do for you, Mr. Moist?" Rita asked. Whatever he wanted, they hoped that it would be quick so he can leave as fast as he came. Dr. Moist wasn't a fool, having anticipated that they would feel too intimidated by him. Without much thought, he reached behind his back for a moment. The family clenched up.

"He's going for a weapon!" Luan shouted.

* * *

Dr. Moist remained calm and pulled out a small, blob. The Loud family stopped their panicking and took a closer look at the object in his hand. It was something like gelatin; it jiggled in place like jelly, but it had dozens of small eyes on it. Lisa walked forward scratching her chin. "What is this contraption?"

Dr. Moist flashed a toothy smile pleased that Lisa was beginning to become invested by the creature. This was just the beginning; soon he'd have her under his grasp. "That, my dear, is what you call a shoggoth."

"Shoggoth?" the family repeated.

"These are just some gelatinous anomalies that can shift any organ that they need at that given time," he explained, "I have some doubts that you'd believe that there was a race thousands of years ago before man that created them."

"Are you kidding?" Lincoln said, "after dealing with Outer Gods and other crazy things, this is just commonplace now."

"Aw, I'm sure that's true, boy; they were called the Elder Things. They were an advanced race of extraterrestrial beings who seeded life here years ago after colonizing this planet. They created the Shoggoths as a slave race."

Lisa raised an eyebrow. "What happened to them if you don't mind me asking?"

Dr. Moist frowned. "The Shoggoths rebelled time after time again, and each time the Elder Things waged war on them. Eventually, the last remnants of their race were wiped out by a bomb."

Lisa nodded. "An intriguing story, but what does this have to do with any of us?"

Dr. Moist smiled again. The smile alone made the family more intimidated. "Why I have heard of many of your inventions from a little birdie; I've come to ask you if you'd like to be my apprentice."

Lisa recoiled back a bit because of the suddenness of the statement. "An apprentice. Me?" she thought. This man of mysterious attire had just arrived into their home and took some odd interest in her. Sure, it would be great to study under someone who was at a vast level of intellect, but still, it came as a surprise. Dr. Moist seemed to pick up on it as well.

"I do apologize for the suddenness of my proposal. Shall I come back perhaps next week so you would have time to think about it?"

Before Lisa could reply, Lincoln stepped in front of them. This gave a level of irritation to Dr. Moist, but because of his clouded lens, the other Loud siblings could not decipher. "Could we have a family meeting first?"

Dr. Moist rolled up his sleeve to show a watch on it. "Make it quick; most preferably thirty seconds."

* * *

With that, the family huddled together tightly and wrapped their arms around each other. They made a few passing glances at Dr. Moist every now and then. He never took his eyes off his wristwatch. This only further disturbed the family, but they tried hard to keep it from being made apparent.

"I don't trust this guy," Lori stated as a matter of fact.

Hushed agreement accompanied her observation. "How would he know about Lisa's other experiments?" Lola asked, "that's creepy!"

"Well, I know he looks intimidating, but he did show off that shoggoth of his," Lincoln noted, "and he does look like he truly wants to help Lisa realize her true potential."

They did nod their heads. At least they could agree on that note. Besides, if Dr. Moist tried to do anything funny, then he would be revoked of his privileges and be dismissed. They broke off the meeting to turn back to Dr. Moist. Oddly, Dr. Moist stopped looking at his wristwatch the exact moment they broke the huddle. "I take it to mean that you finally decided?"

"Precisely," Lisa said, "you've persuaded me."

"Oh, that's wondrous news, Lisa," Dr. Moist said. "Besides, you might teach me a few things as well."

* * *

Outside of the Loud family residence was a rusty pickup truck with the tires nearly on the verge of wearing out. It was a white truck, but because of the rust accumulated on it, it made it somewhat obscured. Lisa was taken aback by the pitiable heap of garbage that was to be her "escort." Dr. Moist noticed her mixed responses on it and laughed it off in a condescending manner.

"Oh, I just needed to rent this truck while my own vehicle is getting some bumps knocked out."

"That…that is valid, I assume," Lisa said.

Lisa's hesitation manifested again, convinced to some extent that this man was an impostor. But if he was, it was much too late to turn back now. She saw her family at the door and decided to wave at them. Nauseously at that. She was ushered into the passenger's side of the truck. Dr. Moist got in on his side and he placed his key into the ignition. The old scrap metal droned to life emitting black, toxic fumes. It stained the grass around a sickening brown and butterflies died from merely being close to the exhaust. The inside of the truck was even worse; it reeked of some unknown, disgusting scent. Strangely, it seemed to be bouncing off from Dr. Moist. It was a sort of smell that was unknown to all other smells on the Earth.

"Dr. Moist," Lisa said, "could I roll your window down?"

Dr, Moist looked at her. "Oh, I'm sorry; just press twice on that button. It'll roll the window down."

Lisa did as he told but even with the window open, it still failed to completely get rid of the smell. They traveled down the road, past some of the landmarks in Royal Woods then into the outskirts of the town. Lisa became more uncertain about the dilemma. "Where exactly are we going?" she finally asked him.

"Why to my laboratory, of course!" Dr. Moist answered.

After around three hours of senseless moving, Dr. Moist's truck stopped. "We're here."

Lisa, who had fallen asleep due to the long ride, awoke from her sleep once the truck rattled to a halt. She rubbed her eyes before seeing where he had taken her. It was a large, torn down building. The windows of the building were worn out and shattered from the slightest gust of wind. There was a small hint of a name on the building but had since been rubbed out.

"What is this place?" Lisa inquired.

"Oh, this was formerly an orphanage," Dr. Moist explained, "it needs a few renovations, but this is the best I could afford at a cheap prize."

Large, burly men walked out of the building as if on cue. They opened Dr. Moist and Lisa's doors spontaneously. Lisa was ushered out by one of the men and directed towards the opening. She felt a hinge of dread for whatever reason but tried to keep that to herself lest it made the situation worse. The rooms were dimly lit from the light-bulbs' flickering. That same, atrocious smell that was on Dr. Moist was now more potent than before. Lisa covered her mouth out of the urge to vomit. Dr. Moist tentatively pat her shoulder.

"It's a wretched smell, I admit, but when you're working with me, you'll get over it."

* * *

Lisa would've very much loved to believe that, but she couldn't help but hear some sort of sound. Almost as quiet as a mouse, but the closer Lisa walked towards the sound, it became more audible and unnerving. They were the sounds of mournful groaning. Lisa looked back at Dr. Moist for answers, but he was not bothered by the groaning. "Pay no attention there, Lisa," he said in a reassured tone of voice, "that is the sound of progress."

"Progress?" Lisa repeated. Without a preemptive warning, Lisa ran from Dr. Moist to find out what the source of the screaming was. Through the bolted doors, Lisa saw more of Dr. Moist's technology. It filled her with amazement. Dr. Moist arrived to the room pleased with Lisa's curiosity. The technology predated anything that was known to Earth.

"Ah, so you've seen a small part of what the Elder Things were capable of?" Dr. Moist observed.

"And you said they did all this back before early man at the least?" Lisa asked.

"It's a rather hard pill to swallow, but I am telling you the truth."

Lisa scratched her head. "What did the Elder Things do?" She still heard the sorrowful mourning from somewhere deeper in the building, but for whatever reason, she wanted to know more about the Elder Things and their long history with the planet.

"They seeded life on your planet, an untold eon ago," Dr. Moist answered. "All your gods have originated from them."

Lisa was fascinated by his answer. It did make some considerable sense with mankind's origins and did explain how life ultimately came about on the planet. The only issue with it spiraled in the recesses of her mind: how did Dr. Moist know so much about the Elder Things if they went extinct years ago according to his statements. Dr. Moist stood by a device that displayed a hologram. He then motioned for Lisa to come closer. Lisa felt that same sense of intimidation from when she first met Dr. Moist, but she obeyed. When she got close, she saw what he was seeing.

It was of one of the ancient civilizations the Elder Things constructed. She saw little virtual holograms of the Elder Things. They were barrel-shaped with starfish-like appendages. Their heads were adorned with five eyes and feeding tubes. From Dr. Moist's vast discussions of the Elder Things, they were reproduced through spores and also built societies underwater, but many had been destroyed often by the star spawn of Cthulhu.

"All of this is very intriguing, Dr. Moist," Lisa said, "but why did the Elder Things always create the Shoggoths if they would inevitably rebel against them?"

Dr. Moist frowned. "Arrogance; blasted, irrational arrogance."

Lisa nodded her head in agreement. "Yes; I can understand that. It is a saying that pride goes against a fall."

"I should know because I was present during one of their council meetings."

* * *

"I beg your pardon?" Lisa plainly said.

Dr. Moist sternly looked at the hologram. He pointed to one of the Elder Things. "That was me about a thousand years before you were born, Lisa."

True enough, there he was standing before a council of Elder Things. While she could not hear what they were saying, it was apparent that there was a great unrest with them. Dr. Moist grit his teeth in anger from watching this memory play out before him. Lisa sensed him growing angrier by the minute. "I told them that they were playing a dangerous game by recreating those slime balls."

Sweat began to protrude from Lisa's forehead. "W-what did you do?"

"My leaders failed not only me, but my entire race," Dr. Moist clarified, "I told them that we needed to make stronger Elder Things to serve as super soldiers, but they failed me. So, I did what I had to do."

As he talked, Lisa caught a glimpse of a bomb being dropped onto the civilization and exploded. Few of the Elder Things visible were incinerated by the blast as they ran. The misty smoke of the bomb corroded the land and disintegrated all plant life around it. Tarry substances formed on the bodies of the Elder Things and ate through their tough exteriors. A total apocalypse seemingly worse than the one Nyarlathotep orchestrated.

"You..you killed them," Lisa said. She stepped back from Dr. Moist.

"No, not killed; I just helped them see their full potential. To create, one must destroy. I was the only one willing to light the fire."

* * *

Lisa ran further down the halls of the building to find a double door. Pushing against it, she saw around 30 Deep Ones being horribly experimented on. All were strapped to beds with wires attached to their bodies. They were screaming out in pain unaware that the young girl had just walked in. Bat wings and feeding tubes ripped through their bodies often from their gills. Other Deep Ones' bodies were modified to resemble the Elder Things' bizarre body structures. Bodies with mix-matched body parts fusing into others; the severe pain resulted in some Deep Ones' skin melting off.

"What is all this!?" Lisa asked.

"You ran off before I could finish my story," Dr. Moist said feigning disappointment, "but I used their genetic structures and spores so I could create my race of Elder Things. They will be ignorant of what their forefathers had done and will be able to adapt to any situation."

"You are using other races to create your own?" Lisa yelled, "I want nothing to do with that!"

"Oh, is that so, Lisa?" he asked, "why is it wrong for me to do it when you run experiments on your siblings?"

Lisa stopped momentarily for a loss of words. True, she was borderline unethical with her research such as one time she was willing to use her baby sister Lisa for one of her experiments or when she implanted tracking devices inside of them, but Lisa would never allow her endeavors to lead to such a callous form of experimentation like that.

"I would never do that because they are my family."

Dr. Moist's smile turned into a distasteful scowl. "Family. I had one at one point, but they would've interfered with my plans. I put my care for my race above any personal affairs."

"I am going back," Lisa vowed, "you are insane."

Dr. Moist snapped his fingers ordering two of his burly men to grab her and carry her away. "It's a real shame that we couldn't see eye to eye, Lisa, but you are too valuable to be let go."

* * *

With that, Dr. Moist took siege of the young brainiac and had her tossed into the room where the broken bodies of all his past victims were stored away in. "Great Scott!"

The bodies were all malformed in varying ways. Many of the bodies had bat wings and eyes on stalks. Their lower bodies were laced with tentacles with toothy-appendages on the tips of the tentacles. Their bodies had sustained an oblong appearance from the experimentation. Although human, the corpses' physiques had merged crudely with the substance Dr. Moist injected them with. They were contorted and twisted mirrors of their former selves resembling ghastly boogeymen. Lisa panicked and ran over the broken bodies towards the open door she was thrown through.

As she edged her way closer to the door, one of the large men snarled at her and slammed it shut in her face knocking her off her path due to the sudden darkness. She fell with a thud onto the corpses accumulated. From her feeling around the room, she sensed about twelve, or at least...twenty bodies littering the ground.

Dr. Moist scowled. "You'll remain there until you become of further use to our cause."

He hated to admit it, but he had truly started to take a liking for the young girl and was more than happy to make her his apprentice and teach her many things like how to create life and perhaps achieve a quasi-immortality where she'd be ruling by his side. But curse her and her compassion. Intellectuals like himself had no time for these meaningless emotions or reservations. He was reminded of how several of his test subjects would curse him for his work. It got progressively old no matter the time, no matter the century. When he met Lisa, he was convinced that he shared his lack of ethics. Seeing that she did not, she became useless to him.

Dr. Moist walked away to his study and pulled up a hologram. The King in Yellow manifested in it. "I've restrained her, my lord."

Hastur laughed in satisfaction. "Excellent work, good doctor. Now comes phase two of my plan."


	11. Teamwork

_Ring. Ring. Ring._

The phone rang, but no one picked up from the other end. Rita walked back and forth in a fast pace, worrying over the phone. The Loud family sat around in the living room with that same expression of worry plastered on their faces. They quietly overheard Rita leaving a message over the phone before she set it down again. She walked into the living room, clasping her face in her hands.

"I've probably left her over 300 messages, but Lisa's not picking up."

"Oh, why did we decide this was a good idea?" Lynn Sr. asked, "the guy was a real creep."

Lincoln scratched his chin. "Did she even charge her phone before she left?"

There was some mumbling among the family; it made some considerable sense that Lisa would potentially forget to charge her cell phone, but at the same time, it didn't really meld well with Lisa's character. No. Something was deeply wrong with the picture. Lisa would have called back the moment she arrived to wherever Dr. Moist took her to. Dr. Moist might even be doing god knows what on Lisa if they didn't think quickly of what to do. As if speaking of the Devil himself, one of the siblings' phones sounded to indicate that there was a message. Lincoln felt around in his back pocket and slipped out his phone. On it was a message left by a number he didn't recognize.

"What is it, Lincoln?" Lori asked.

Lincoln gulped anxiously and opened the message. It says 'We have your sister. No harm will come to her lest you fail to give up her invention."

"Her invention?" Luan read, "what is that?"

"Obviously he means her invention for show and tell," Lori said.

"But who knows what he'd try to use it on?" Luna said.

* * *

The siblings began to wildly argue among themselves over plausible solutions to their problems, but none were getting any closer to an agreement. The parents tried to quiet their children to no avail. Lucy suddenly ceased her yelling to delve into her mind for some solutions. With every plausible answer, she came to the same conclusion, but she didn't like it. Lucy stood up while the siblings still voiced their grievances profoundly.

"Guys, I think I got the answer."

The family momentarily jumped in fright due to Lucy's tendencies of appearing out of nowhere and scaring the living daylights out of anyone she came across. "What is it, Lisa?" Lincoln asked.

After a few minutes of explanation, the family was plainly against Lucy's propositions. This was to be expected. After all, Lucy was suggesting that they consult the Necronomicon again. Lynn Jr. violently shook her head to further emphasize how bad of an idea it was. "Lucy, did some monster suck out your brains!?

Lucy sighed. "I know that it is risky, but maybe he could help us."

"Lucy, he tried to kill us all when we last saw him," Luna noted, "what makes you think he won't try to do it again?"

"I know that the risk exists, sister," Lucy stated, "I felt every sense of pain from fading into nonexistence. But I really feel that this is our best course of action."

The sisters argued among each other leaving Lincoln to contemplate his younger sister's proposition. Crazy? Yes. Madness inducing? Also, accurate. But Lisa's life was potentially on the line. They had to do something. Fast. Swallowing his pride, Lincoln cleared his throat to drown and stood by his sister. "It's a crazy plan, but what other option do we have?"

The sisters looked at each other. Luna cautiously stood up and walked over to Lincoln and Lucy. "Dudes, if Lucy thinks she knows what she's doing, then we should do it."

"No, no, no! That is the dumbest thing I've heard of in a long time!" Lynn Jr. said crossing her arms, "I am not going to humor that idea."

"What idea do you have?" Leni asked.

Lynn Jr. was taken a back. "Uh…um…we…" Sweat beat down her forehead as her cheeks reddened. "Well, whatever is better than Lucy's plan!"

The other sisters looked at Lynn Jr. then to Lucy, and back to her again. Them gathering to surround Lucy and Lincoln wordlessly demonstrated their opinion. Lynn Jr. was left alone but the parents did falter a bit in their choice. Steam erupted from Lynn Jr.'s ears. She snorted in disbelief.

"Fine. Don't say I didn't warn you when our brains get sucked out through bendy straws."

* * *

The family held an assembly in the backyard over the site their dog Charles was reburied under. Lisa held out a page of the Necronomicon. "Lucy, before we do this, I must ask you something," Lincoln said.

"Yes?" she responded.

"I thought the Necronomicon was drained of its powers when Patrick used it to destroy Nyarlathotep."

"There are a few more copies of the Necronomicon, Lincoln," she stated, "I just happened to make a few copies of some of the pages when we still had the one Lana was given."

With that, Lucy started the ritual having collected a special powder which was more complicated to procure than need be. Lucy started to speak. As she spoke, she sprinkled some of the powder on the fire she ignited. The family couldn't help but be disturbed from the maddening language Lucy was reciting. Some ancient, old language that was not uttered in ages.

"Are we supposed to be hearing all that?" Lola asked aloud, "it sounds evil."

The ground shook with a large tremor that forced the Louds onto the ground. Lucy was the only one still standing firm making her voice sound even more potent and above a few octaves. The afternoon sky disappeared in a thick layer of darkness. The clouds gathered over the site of the assembly and rumbled like it was a living creature. Lori saw it, becoming more frightful.

"Lucy, I don't mean to rush you and this…satanic stuff, but do you think maybe you could speed it up?"

A green bolt of lightning struck the ground when Lucy directed her glare to respond. Cracks formed in long, winding waves. The green light blinded the Loud family incessantly. Even when it ended, they feared opening their eyelids. For whatever case, the light was too strong and likely madness inducing. They heard a slight chuckling, but it was of a more feminine tone.

"You may open your eyes now."

Reluctantly, the Loud family opened their eyes. Instead of the multi-eyed, ropes of tentacles and spheres they saw three years ago, instead, they saw a woman in black with her hood concealing her face. Lincoln and Lynn Sr. couldn't much help but blush from the woman's sudden appearance. Lucy folded the pages of the ritual and placed it into her pocket. "Are you him?" she asked.

"Yes. I am Yog-Sothoth."

* * *

"But weren't you talking spaghetti that one time?" Leni foolishly asks. Lori and Luna immediately cover her mouth and chuckle nervously. Leni mumbled a few more words but they were inaudible.

"Sorry for my sister's…specialness," Lori said. Sweat beat down her body. She was more than convinced that Yog-Sothoth would vaporize her or worse. Thankfully for her, Yog-Sothoth was in a good mood.

"One of you summoned me about your sister?" Yog-Sothoth said.

"How did you know that?" Lincoln asked.

"I see all, Lincoln," Yog-Sothoth replied in a matter of fact way, "Lucy inquired my great knowledge."

Lucy walked to the Outer God and tried to put on a brave face despite her fears. "A man by the name of Dr. Moist kidnapped Lisa."

Yog-Sothoth. "Man? I see he's still wearing that meat suit he stole from some impostor."

The children recoiled. Meat suit? No…Dr. Moist had to be a man; he walked and talked like a man, and he at least was able to copy most of the social norms required. At the same time, they were reminded of how thin his frame was and that his clothing was loose on his body. They had seen crazier things lately, so at the least Yog-Sothoth could be believed on that point.

"Regardless, I do know where your sister is," Yog-Sothoth answered. "But first, present Mia to me."

Mia was behind Rita and Lynn Sr. She sensed a sinister aura within Yog-Sothoth and earnestly did not want to be anywhere close to him. It took some probing by the parents until she felt secure enough to walk over. Yog-Sothoth raised his head causing his hood to fall back to reveal his one eye. "So, you're Nyarlathotep's progeny?"

Mia vehemently shook her head. "I am not his daughter; he was a bad man."

Yog-Sothoth blinked. "Ah, you were part of his contingency plan that he arranged with some old crone and kept you safe until the events of his death. Oh, but that's squarely in the past and is best forgotten."

"You have no idea, Yog-Sothoth," Lincoln stated, "he was a really bad father."

"I can sense that. I have fathered many children throughout the years often as part of rituals," Yog-Sothoth said.

"Did you treat them well?" Lincoln asked.

"I was a very merciful parent to them…I ate the more disappointing ones, but otherwise many tried to exert my will over the Earth and other worlds."

Lynn Jr. rubbed her eyes. "This is all fine and good, but we need your help with saving Lisa. After that, we will send you back to whatever hellish plane you crawled out of."

Lynn Jr. felt the intensity of Yog-Sothoth's stare. She was now walking on thin ice. Yog-Sothoth was in a more talkative mood and negotiable. One more wrong move, and she'd probably be vaporized on the spot. Yog-Sothoth passed her eye into another direction, washing Lynn Jr. in relief.

* * *

"I need Mia to help with defeating Hastur."

"Hastur?" Lucy asked.

"Yes; Hastur," Yog-Sothoth repeated, "The King in Yellow. He Who Must Not Be Named. He has arrived on your world and now desires to make it his domain. I'm certain you've seen his Yellow Sign?"

The Louds thought back to where they saw or heard of it. "Yes, it was on the news," Lincoln answered.

"Hastur is the half-brother of Cthulhu. He was born with little power in comparison to his half-brother. Ever since then, Hastur waged war with the Great Dreamer to stop him from awakening in his sunken city of R'lyeh. He was on the Earth momentarily as a result of Nyarlathotep's liberation, but he was locked away, back in his home planet. Anger left him restless. Until now."

"So that's why Dr. Moist wants Lisa's device," Lincoln said, "but how can you expect us to help you?"

"Mia is the key," Yog-Sothoth explained, "because she is Nyarlathotep's progeny, she has access to opening portals to various parts of the universe preferably to the throne room of Azathoth himself."

"But Azathoth's the ultimate chaos, isn't he?" Lucy notes, "we risk waking him up if we do that."

"Funnily enough, Azathoth wasn't always the ultimate chaos," Yog-Sothoth said.

"He wasn't?" Lucy said.

"He is Nyarlathotep's father, after all. He was just as wicked as him eons ago. Until he lost his mind."

The Louds allowed what Yog-Sothoth said on Azathoth to marinate in their minds for a moment. "Why can't you do it yourself?"

Yog-Sothoth frowned. "This is just a fragment of my full power. That's why Mia's crucial in my plan. Well, she is an addition of it."

As if on cue, a large mass manifested behind Yog-Sothoth. It had a weird, extraterrestrial feel to it for its body was made of some unknown substance unknown to any other material on Earth. It resembled at best an octopus or a squid with large, veined wings towering from his back. The being's arms were tipped with sharp, dagger-like claws. It possessed orange eyes that illuminated in the darkness.

"Is…Is that…." Lincoln stammered.

"Yes, human," Yog-Sothoth answered stoically, "this is Cthulhu."


	12. Teamwork Pt II

Meeting Cthulhu again after nearly getting killed by him three years ago proved to be a shock to the system for the Loud siblings. They confided in Patrick that he had truly rid the world of the Great Old One, yet, here he was just as gigantic as ever. Trees were sliced in half from his massive pinchers. Cthulhu looked at the Louds with an utmost curiosity: for whatever reason, the girls seemed familiar to him somehow. It was like slowly waking up from a dream and being unable to discern the dream from reality.

"Don't fret, children," Yog-Sothoth said, "any memories he had about any of you had been erased because of his rebirth."

The Louds lowered their guards slightly but remained dubious of Yog-Sothoth's claims. Cthulhu turned to Yog-Sothoth. Despite having no visual mouth, he was thinking along the same lines of the kids. "Why are we having these humans help?"

Yog-Sothoth held up his hand. "That will come into place later, son."

Lincoln scratched his head in deep thought. "Where is this Hastur at, Yog-Sothoth?"

Yog-Sothoth snapped his fingers; green streams of lights manifested suddenly and created windows around the children. "Hastur's army is situated here."

They glimpsed at the mall in Royal Woods. Hastur sat on his constructed throne overseeing his minions. They were all morbidly bloated beyond recognition with boneless limbs and scaly skin. They wobbled about in directionless stride only to be weighed down by their restrained breathing. When one fell over, the other minions were unalarmed and walked over him. Around 10 of the minions were singing ineligible praise to the King in Yellow. Hastur's Yellow Sign was inscribed on a large flag made of the different fragments from several of the mall's department.

* * *

"Ew, why does everyone look so gross?" Leni asked.

"They have all accepted the Yellow Sign," Yog-Sothoth explained. "All those that accept his symbol are transformed into his unshapely servants and are all apart of him."

With that answer, they resumed their glimpses into the windows. They heard violent protesting and struggling. Dr. Moist was now in the picture but now he as conveying that he was very little human. His legs were replaced with long, slimy legs that slithered on the floor in quick haste. Lisa was wrapped securely in his tentacles fighting to escape. Dr. Moist had his glasses over his eyes again to cloud his true eyes. He didn't convey it much, but it was shown that he was now losing his patience with the young Brainiac. "I got her, my lord. We need her alive…for now."

The Loud siblings' eyes widened in disbelief. "We need to give Hastur that device…now," Lincoln said.

"But didn't you see how messed up all those people were, Lincoln?" Lynn Jr. said. "We can't afford to have Lisa's telecommunication device fall into Hastur's hands."

"Your brother is right, human," Yog-Sothoth said. "When Hastur acquires the device, that is where Cthulhu comes into the equation."

"Cthulhu's going to fight Hastur?" Luna asked.

"The two have always been destined to have eternal enmity with each other. For many years, Cthulhu's sunken city of R'lyeh had arisen from the deepest depths of the blue when the planets aligned themselves. But Hastur always knew that the Great Dreamer was destined to awaken and plunge the world into destruction as he reclaimed it for, he ruled the Earth eons prior to when you humans first crawled out of the primordial ooze."

* * *

Lana noticed some of the scars and wounds on Cthulhu's flesh. But that was only for a minute as Cthulhu instantaneously shielded his injuries with his wings. They were in a crude zigzag fashion with numerous, alternating directions. They had yet to completely regenerate after one of Cthulhu's recent fierce training sessions. Lana went to open her mouth, but Yog-Sothoth immediately spoke up. "I've trained him to prepare him for his battle."

"Something doesn't seem right about that, sir," Lana replied under her breath.

"You humans are all the same," Yog-Sothoth stated bluntly, "always wanting answers to questions when your mind cannot even hope to comprehend it."

The Loud family assembled into their household and they started gathering blueprints and heavy lifting Lisa's telecommunication device and satellite dish. Yog-Sothoth also stood by and silently watched the Loud family collect the materials. Yog-Sothoth also stared intently at the family's photo album with a small smidge of curiosity.

Mia also assisted the family anyway she could. As she went to grab some of Lisa's tools, she couldn't help but allow Yog-Sothoth's words to resonate with her. All her life she knew that she was different…a freak of nature even. Her father did try to make things easier for her by insisting that she was special, but she couldn't overlook the fact that her birth father tormented him relentlessly by murdering his family and imprisoning him. The thought that Nyarlathotep's memories tried to force her to do the same to Lynn Sr. disgusted her. Now she was made aware that not only was Nyarlathotep her father, but that he came together with an old woman to conceive an abomination like herself. Hot tears began to stream down her face.

Lincoln stopped momentarily when he saw Mia crying. "What's wrong, Mia?"

"I feel like I'm nothing more than a curse, Lincoln," Mia replied. "I wish I was never born."

"No, no, don't say that," Lincoln reassured.

He grabbed some tissue and presented it to her. She dabbed her eyes with the tissue paper. Mia's legs began to wobble and get switched out with tentacles. Unbeknownst to her, she was shifting between forms again. Lincoln stepped back slightly but pressed further. "So Nyarlathotep created you as an experiment. That doesn't mean that it determines who you are."

"But does it bother you that I tried to eat you and your sisters?" Mia asked again. "If it wasn't for your father tossing that warm milk down my throat…"

Lincoln placed a finger on Mia's mouth. "That was not your fault. Your father was a horrible beast, but you overcame his influence and evicted him from your body. Nyarlathotep may have been a god, but you have something that he never had."

"What was that?"

Lincoln smiled. "Compassion. Humanity. Nyarlathotep was nothing more but a cosmic bully who felt that he could mistreat anyone he wanted because he didn't want to face the reality that he was cripplingly insecure. The fact that your Dad defeated him shocked him, reinforcing that he was just an all-powerful coward desperately trying to be a control freak."

Mia meditated on Lincoln's words. He was being insightful; perhaps he was right. Mia dries the remaining tears in her eyes and throws the tissue paper into the garbage. "Thanks, Lincoln. I needed that."

"Any time!" Lincoln remarked.

* * *

Vanzilla was packed to its breaking point with Lisa's invention. This forces the Loud family to improvise by pushing for the children to share two seats of Vanzilla. That would mean having to be huddled together in a tight space, but that was the best that they could do. Lincoln called for another meeting, inviting Mia, Yog-Sothoth, and Cthulhu to partake in it.

"Alright. Lucy, please set out the paper."

Lucy obliged and laid down a sheet of paper with some writing on it. Lori is then called, and she uses her light on her cell phone to illuminate it. Lincoln thanked her for it and began to talk again.

"Alright, so me; Luna; Luan; Lori; Lynn; and Mom and Dad will come into the mall's opening here." He pressed down on the paper with his pointing stick. "Yog-Sothoth and Cthulhu will be situated outside to wait as we get the telecommunication device inside of the store and deliver it to Hastur."

The family nodded to themselves in agreement. "Wait, what about us?" Lola pointed out.

"Leni will be in Vanzilla to take care of you and the others," Lincoln explained, "if Hastur suspects some time of tomfoolery, we can't afford to earn his wrath."

"I guess that makes sense," Lola said.

"So, we are all in agreement?" Lincoln said aloud.

The team nodded their heads and made it vocally clear that they were under agreement. The Loud family then went into their chanting of the "Louds never quit!" motto. Mia couldn't help but also get in on the warrior cry.

"Alright, guys," Rita announced, "we _will_ face Hastur head on, and we _will_ get our Lisa back!"

The Loud family cheered again in confidence that their plan would go on without a hitch. They then gathered into the van with Cthulhu and Yog-Sothoth tailing behind them. With Lynn Sr. in the driver's seat, he places the keys into ignition. He turns counterclockwise to activate it.

"Lisa, here we come!"

The family shouts out their motto once more, but Leni suddenly stops chanting. "Wait, guys!"

The Louds turned to look at Leni in alarm. "What is it, Leni?" Lincoln asked.

"…What was the plan again?"

The family shared a collective groan and with that, they were on their way to the mall. Time was on the essence.

* * *

Hastur looked down at the small girl before his throne. He gestured for Dr. Moist to release his grip on her. Dr. Moist was about to interject, but he caught wind that Hastur's hand was forming into a tight fist. Reluctantly, he lets her go and she falls down on the ground.

"Ouch, you primeval nautilus, you're manners are not too different from a Neanderthal!"

Dr. Moist removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes. When he finished, five eyes slipped out through the holes where his pupils and schlera should've been. "You're the first one I'll experiment on for a good 8,000 years after Hastur takes over your world." Lisa narrowed her eyes.

"Let's not inquire what the future lies ahead for us, Doctor," Hastur stated, "we are all friends here." He couldn't help but snicker at that last note.

Lisa stood up. "You. You must be the one behind all of this, aren't you?"

"That is correct, human. I am quite please that I have selected you to fulfill my dreams."

Lisa scoffed. "I will not use my knowledge to help you achieve any sort of goal."

Hastur leaned down so that his large face was on Lisa's level. "Is that so?"

Lisa smirked. "Precisely. I don't care if you're some god like Nyarlathotep or Cthulhu, I..."

The room suddenly grew silent. The minions shuddered in suspense. Dr. Moist himself was also unnerved, opting to slip away. The chattering behind Hastur's mask returned beginning with low buzzes and shifting through multiple octaves. His rage was reaching his boiling point. He grabbed the sides of his temples and shook his head. "What...did you say...?!"

The mall's foundation began to shake violently. The lights blinked on and off in seizure inducing waves. The minions collapsed on the ground from their failed attempts at making a break for it only to fail due to their stubby legs. Lisa was hardly ever terrified of anything that could probably be explained away by science. But in this case, even she was reeling back in fright.

**"CTHULHU! CTHULHU! CTHULHU! NO ONE IS TO SAY THAT TERRIBLE NAME IN MY PRESENCE!"**

His voice shook debris free from the mall's ceilings and crashed onto the blobby minions. Lisa took refuge in some of the rubble terrified that Hastur would see her and kill her on the spot. Hastur stood up from his throne still holding onto his throbbing head and screeching in beastly languages. His tentacles caressed the ground leveling the departments of the mall and killing more of his minions. Eventually, after a couple minutes, Hastur returned to his more normal state, or at least what the Great Old Ones would consider normal. He looked at the debris around him and the broken bodies of his minions, reacting with disinterest. He scratched his mask a few times to become calm again. He tapped his colossal fingers on the throne before sitting back down in it.

"Forgive me for my...outburst, human. As I know you haven't the understanding on your error, I will say this once: my half-brother's name is banned in my kingdom."

"What are you going to do with me?" Lisa asked. "Why did you kidnap me?"

Hastur arched his fingers. "For years I have tried to wipe out Cthulhu and his kin from the Earth so that I may assert my rule over this planet. Ever since I was young, I knew that it was my ambition. But I lack the power to completely overtake this world hence is why I learned about your wonderful device."

"My telecommunication device?"

"Yes, my child! With your machine, I can transform the entire populace into my perfect, gorged, scaly abominations to rule over. Ah, yes, the perfect, obedient slaves!"

Lisa stood firm on the ground, though still afraid. "No, not in a trillion or so years will I help you take over the world."

Hastur placed his right hand on the arm of his throne. "Oh no?"

Lisa raised an eyebrow unsure what the King in Yellow's next course of action was. "What in the-!"

To her surprise, Hastur reached to grab his mask and started to slowly remove it. The chattering behind his mask became more deep and pronounced. A bright, eerie light shined through the eyes of the mask perplexing Lisa even more. A bubble formed in Lisa's throat and propelled itself up towards her mouth. Lisa knew that feeling quite well. Fear. Pure, unadulterated fear. What Lisa saw next ultimately ripped her of her sanity.


	13. Teamwork Pt III

The Louds arrived at the mall around 4 in the afternoon. Lincoln pulled out the paper he scribbled his plans on and started to relay them to his family and Mia. "Alright: me; Lori; Luna; Lynn; Luan; and Mom and Dad will slip out the device and enter the mall through the front entrance here.

The family nodded in agreement. As they opened the back and began to slide the device and tools out, they heard someone approaching them. Lincoln turned around in alarm. It was Dr. Moist and two of his men. Dr. Moist's lower body was still ropes of tentacles. Lincoln couldn't help but notice that he had five strands seeping through his sockets topped with small, black eyes. "We were about to test out my disintegrator ray, but I am delighted that you have arrived as agreed in our terms."

The family eyed Dr. Moist bizarrely. Dr. Moist scowled. "Yes, yes, I know; I tried to keep this flesh suit free from decay with my technological knowledge, but I'm falling apart at the seams."

One of the men took hold of the satellite dish and carted it away. The second man glared into Vanzilla where Mia was sitting. Mia reeled herself back out of intimidation. The man, with his brown, hazel eyes, stared intently at her. As if looking right into her unearthly soul and judging her. Then, he reached for the door and clicked the knob.

"Hey, what is that guy doing?" Lori asked.

"My lord has also requested that she be presented before him," Dr. Moist explained.

Mia grabbed the door and attempted to shut it, but the man was stronger. In desperation, Mia produced two tentacles from her back and two from her chest. Grabbing the seats adjacent to her, she firmly grasped the seats while simultaneously gripping the door's knob. Even despite that, the man still maintained his hold of the door. Tentacles were nothing more but rows upon rows of sheer muscle, and yet this seeming human could combat it. The nerves in his forearms began to bulge on the surface. Mia held on as tight as she could praying that she could overpower him. She could feel her tentacles tearing.

Rip.

* * *

A gooey snap rung out. Mia's frontal tentacles were broken in half and on the floor of Vanzilla. Strange purple blood was spilling heavily from the tentacles. "Mia, are you okay?" Lincoln asked.

Mia collapsed on the seat causing more of her strange, alien blood to leak onto the seat and floor. The man had pulled on the door so hardly, he ripped it off its hinges. He then collects the girl ignoring that her blood was getting on him.

"My serum had achieved perfection." Dr. Moist stated in a blissful tone.

"Serum?" Lori asked.

"Yes. It is my Elder Thing serum. I had just administered them with it, and thus far, there had been no hiccups. They're coming along greatly as their bodily cells and genetic makeup are breaking down and reassembling themselves to create Elder Things. All is going according to plan."

Lynn Jr. and the other elder sisters were surrounding the man. "There's no way we're allowing Hastur to have Mia; not when we're around!"

The sisters took a step towards the man in an attempt at getting the drop on him. Despite still holding onto an unconscious Mia, the man raised his foot and brought it down hard on Lynn's head. Lynn collapsed on the ground. Luna grabbed onto the man's back while Luan took the front. "Ew, Mia's blood is getting all over me," Luan groaned.

"Let Mia go, ya big oaf!" Luna screamed. She bit down hard on the back of the man's neck. He grunted briefly from the pain and suddenly ran backwards. Before Luna knew what was going on, he slammed her against the side of Vanzilla. Wham. Wham. Wham. Wham. Luna was getting bruised badly. The window behind her shattered into millions of pieces. Luna yelped as shards of glass were driven into her beaten and bloodied back. Her rib cage hurt; if she was certain, she felt the sensation that at least three of her ribs were broken. Her struggling weakening, she sluggishly slid off his back into a heap on the ground.

He grabbed Luan by the throat and started to squeeze the life out of her. Luan's screaming came out as forced puffs of air. He further tightened his grip on her neck. Luan was quickly blacking out; the world around her was getting darker.

"Wait, don't hurt her!" Lincoln yelled.

Dr. Moist raised his hand forcing the man to loosen his grip on Luan. Air immediately began to refill Luan's lungs. Her breathing became heavier, but it slowly progressed to small huffs. "We won't kill any of your sisters as long as that girl is brought before my lord."

Lincoln thought heavily on what he said. Surrendering Mia to him was out of the question, but refusal to do so would result in Dr. Moist ordering his men to kill his sisters and likely his parents as well. "Okay, okay!"

"Lincoln, how could you!?" Lana yelled out.

Lana suddenly noticed that Lincoln was reaching behind his back for some reason. He crouched himself on the ground at the same time picking up a few rocks. "Alright, alright. You can have Mia," Lincoln said slowly, "but first…HAVE THIS!"

He swung three rocks at Dr. Moist and it hit him in three of his eyes. "GACK!" Dr. Moist's eyes burst open from the force exerted on them by the rocks. He covered his bruised eyes with his hand and was shouting obscenities at the top of his voice. "**_Oh, my lord_**!"

* * *

Lincoln noticed that every time Dr. Moist referred to his superior, he never disclosed his name. "Who's your master, doctor?"

Dr. Moist looked at the white-haired boy with his two good eyes. "I know what trick you are trying to pull, boy, but I'll never reveal my master!"

The other girls took notice of him dodging the question and took part in it pestering him about disclosing what the name of his master was. He slowly became agitated by their pressing for answers still refusing to spill the beans. He placed two of his skinny fingers in his mouth and whistled. Four men were sent out single file. "Kill them," Dr. Moist shouted at the top of his lungs, "you take the girl inside while you lot kill them all!"

Yog-Sothoth snapped his fingers and in a flash, Young Cthulhu came down hard on the men and grabbed them with his claws and sliced them in half like a knife cutting through vegetables or a clean cut of meat. Dr. Moist stood frozen in place shocked beyond relief. "That is Cthulhu alright…but I thought he'd still be a little blob or whatever."

Seeing that he was thinking too hardly on it, Dr. Moist shook out of it and whistled for more of his men to arrive to deal with the Great Old One. But like with the others before them, they were falling by the dozen at his strength. Dr. Moist became more frightened and started to sprint away with his tentacled legs. Lori saw this and she made a jump for it. Because he was moving slowly on the ground as a result of his legs, she grabbed one of them.

"Let me go!" he shouted. He clawed at the ground in psychotic frenzy not caring if it made him undignified. Lori refused and locked her knees around his tentacle. Cthulhu's roaring filled the air sending a chill. Dr. Moist thought back to Lincoln and how he tossed rocks at him. Weakly grabbing some, he tossed one at Lori, but she dodged it. He growled and went to pick another up only for Lincoln to run over and step on his hand.

"You wretched man-ape!" Dr. Moist hissed.

"Why is Lisa's invention so important?" Lincoln asked.

Dr. Moist spat in disgust. "I am not going to betray my master by telling you!"

He yelped in pain from Lincoln grinding his foot harder on his hand. "Okay! Okay!" he yelled.

He started to pick himself up, but Lori still had his tentacle wrapped around her thighs. "No funny business, bub."

"My master wishes to rule over your world with an iron fist. First by using his Yellow Sign to terraform the Earth. And with Mia, he'll open the gates to release the Outer Gods to consume them and become the most powerful being in existence!"

Lincoln and the others were horrified. "Your master is insane!"

"Besides what'll happen to you?" Lori inquired. "After all, you'd be one of them."

Dr. Moist laughed. "Are you suggesting that I betray my master? After he funded my research into making the perfect Elder Thing soldiers?! You're insane if you are going to assume that I'd sell out my master Hastur to the likes of you!"

Dr. Moist immediately covered his mouth in sheer horror of what he had just said. He was trembling violently. Lori's eyes widened and she immediately released the tentacle between her thighs and grabbed Lincoln's hand before they both ran off. Dr. Moist's trembling became more fierce. "No…no…master. Please."

He opened his mouth as if to scream, but instead, his long, serpentine tongue rolled out and stretched itself beyond its reasonable limitations. The tongue wrapped itself around Dr. Moist's throat. Dr. Moist grabbed onto his tongue to stop it from curling any further. But Hastur's dark magic was more powerful. Layers upon layers of Dr. Moist's slimy organ wrapped itself tightly around his neck slowly suffocating him.

"Mrrr…gmmmf!" he grunted. His two good eyes were filling with pressure. His cheeks bulged out from the lack of oxygen. He was turning a deep shade of purple now. He gripped at his tongue harder than previously from his flight or fight reflexes shifted into high gear. But it was all fore not. With one swift motion, Dr. Moist's head was snapped to the right. He then collapsed on the ground in a heap. His alien blood was staining the ground.

The Loud family reacted in fright out of what happened. "Well, he was a jerk anyway," Lucy noted bluntly.

* * *

Inside of the mall, the telecommunication device was set up. Lisa finished up on the device, but she was still squarely under the influence of Hastur's madness. In her bouts of madness, Lisa was told the deep, dark secrets behind mankind's place in the cosmos; of where the Old Ones tread and where they would once again. Hastur's insight both intrigued and unsettled the young genius. He filled her mind with hidden knowledge to create another device. The man from earlier walked in holding Mia on his right shoulder.

"Perfect." Hastur said. "Set her down."

The man did as he was told, and he walked her over to the second machine. Mia came to when she was being placed in a laser machine. She stirred awake and attempted to pry herself from the man's grip. "Lincoln! Guys! Help me!"

Hastur slammed the arm on his throne silencing her. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, daughter of Nyarlathotep."

"You're…you're Hastur."

"Indeed I am. Man, please strap her up."

The man tied ropes on her arms and legs and placed her on the center of the laser machine. "What are you going to do with me?" Mia thought aloud.

"We are going to invite the Outer Gods," Hastur responded.

Hastur raised his finger and pointed it to the man. Understanding the signal, the man trudged over to the base of the machine where a series of keys and buttons met him. He activated the machine, and before Mia could comprehend what was happening to her, green lightning surged through her body. Her heart felt as though it were pumping faster from the sharp pain caressing her body. "STOP!" she yelled.

Hastur chuckled beneath his mask. "Just a little more," he said advising the man.

The man cooperated again and increased the juice to the laser machine. Mia thrashed around in her restraints. Her body was bouncing and spasming from her very essence seeping through her body and fueling the machine. She yelled once more with her eyes taking on a greenish hue. The raw power escaped through Mia's chest cavity and formed a portal that widened. Hastur's minions saw this and attempted to make a run for it. The pull of the portal overcame several and they were sucked into it to be forever lost to time and space.

Hastur stood from his throne and bellowed a hearty laugh. "Excellent! Simply excellent."

He walked over to Lisa towering over her. "It is time, Lisa."

* * *

Lisa nodded and she went to her telecommunication device and flipped a switch. Yellow waves were emitted from the satellite dish and into the air. Lincoln and the others heard the loud buzzing of the dish, but they also heard Mia's pained screams. "We're too late!" he yelled.

In every part of the world, there came a great unrest unlike any the world had ever seen before. Throughout the world, families and any who had access to a television collectively saw the image of Hastur's Yellow Sign. Their minds were robbed of their individualities and in return was utter madness. A middle-aged man saw the Yellow Sign first before the rest of his family fell victim to it. At 9, the image entered his eyes, slowly perverting him. He found it hard to walk; while middle-aged, his bones were never fragile. But when he went to get up, he fell. His arms became useless. For whatever reason, he felt his body swell and become itchy in feel.

When his family came to inquire on him, he was successfully turned. He knew something was wrong with him deep down, but he could not verbalize it to them. They didn't recognize him at first but as their minds slowly began to wrap around the revelation, they too had the misfortune of glimpsing at the Yellow Sign. A family of 5 was completely converted and aware that they were feeling strange but could do little to remedy it.

Waves of panic filled the air. People were being transformed into hideous blobs with folds upon folds of fatness hanging lazily from their bodies. Their limbs became engorged and no longer useful. Yellow scales covered every circumference of their body. Even people in the streets were transforming.

Fire and mayhem spread throughout the streets in every country. Because of their visages and unshapely physiques, cars slammed into each other for their limbs were too swollen to maneuver their brakes. Bystanders dropped to the ground contorting in grotesquely, excruciating pain. Yellow tumors erupted from their bodies and they too became one of Hastur's many wobbling, disgusting entourage. Minds unraveled at the seams and were connected to Hastur's mind and his deplorable soul.

Sirens blared in emergency at the international dilemma. Anchorpeople spoke excessively of the sudden turning of events whilst showing footage of dozens of civilians falling to the ground and getting overtaken by suffocating blubber and reptilian hides. At the mall in Royal Woods, the portal to free the Outer Gods was expanding at dangerous pace. All of the pantheon's Outer Gods that were locked away from our dimension will soon return to the Earth and damn mankind.


	14. Hastur v Cthulhu

Across the world, mankind was being transformed into bloated monstrosities with jaws on their fingers and fluid-filled arms bereft of bones. They were aware of their changes in their physical body structure, but only as a sliver of their true selves. The transformed – the Unspeakable Possessors – were now compelled by the most primal of urges that they had hidden away behind a thin veil of civility. Unprecedented violence ran amok in the streets with the Unspeakable Possessors ripping and tearing into each other as wild animals and destroying all in their path.

"Well, there went that plan," Lincoln bemoaned, "I guess we'll just have to take the offense then."

As Lincoln and the others were heading inside of the mall, Lana noticed Young Cthulhu's scars again. "Uh, Yog-Sothoth, can I have a little time with your son?"

Yog-Sothoth looked at Lana in suspicion. "I'll give you a little time."

With that, Yog-Sothoth enters the shopping mall's front entrance leaving Lana alone with the Great Old One. Cthulhu's eyes glowed ominously. "What is the meaning of this, human?"

"He's abusing you, isn't he?" Lana asked.

Cthulhu did not respond to the question at first. "I need to go face Hastur, human, so if you don't mind- "

"You have scars all over your body," Lana pointed out, "are you even in the right condition to fight him?"

Cthulhu nodded ever so slightly, but that did not give much reassurance as far as Lana was concerned. Cthulhu stood in front of the door making a running stance. He reared his wings in an upward fashion, which unknowingly to him exposed more of the scares he had sustained from the Shoggoths. He tapped the ground with his gargantuan claws unsure of what next step he would take. After a long hour of contemplating, Cthulhu lifted himself up and smashed through the doors. Lana followed afterward. Inside, the Loud siblings were being held captive by Hastur's henchman. Hastur once again sat on his throne of cardboard. His skeletal fingers tapped on the arms of his throne.

* * *

"Ah, so my half-brother is somehow still alive, how miraculous."

Hastur said this statement with a hint of sarcasm in his voice. Rising from his throne, he walked over to Cthulhu to stare him in the eyes. "You look just like your wretched daughter."

He extended his hand towards Cthulhu in an odd gesture. Cthulhu was going to say something, but he was then slashed across the face by Hastur. Cthulhu hissed and grabbed ahold of his arm. Hastur growled in aggression. "Let me go, insignificant creature!"

With those words, the two half-brothers began to fight each other. Tentacles erupted from Hastur's body and engulfed Cthulhu. Shrill laughter erupted from Hastur's mask from the sensation of hearing his half-brother's bones crushing from the muscles contracting in his tentacles. His laughter ceased when Cthulhu grabbed three of his tentacles and pried them off with his claws.

"RA!" Hastur shouted.

Cthulhu held the three tentacles in his claws before tossing them aside. Hastur cursed in his ineligible alien language before pouncing on him. The two brothers were locked in a deathly embrace and rolled around on the floor. The two gods recklessly began to obliterate everything in their path. The ground trembled immeasurably. Departments were being destroyed in the gods' collision. Debris was falling from the ceiling of the mall.

"Guys, I don't think the mall will be standing up for much longer," Lori said.

"But Hastur's minions are keeping watch over us," Lincoln noted, "how are we going to escape?"

Lynn Jr. scanned her surroundings whilst being held in the arms of one of the Unspeakable Possessors. From there, she noticed the minion's wobbly legs deciding to view them as their weak spots. Lynn Jr. raised her head to smirk at the minion. He raised an eyebrow. "What are you smiling about?"

"Oh, nothing, just about…THIS!"

* * *

Lynn Jr. raised her foot and smashed it against the minion's leg. The fluid that had accumulated inside of it erupted from his leg as he fell on the ground being rendered as immobile. Now freed, Lynn Jr. runs towards her siblings and repeated the same thing to the legs of their holders. More of the Unspeakable Possessors ran towards the Loud siblings some walking over their fallen comrades or ripping them to shreds in senseless fashion.

"More are coming!" Lola shouted.

Lynn Jr. scanned her surroundings again to find some tool to use. Her eyes immediately spot wooden bars. Grabbing one, she raced towards two of the Unspeakable Possessors and smashed their legs and arms with them in quick succession. "Guys, grab some of the wood!"

They did as they were told, and they gathered as much wood at their disposal and tossed it at the minions shattering more of their fluid-filled limbs. They took swings at their bloated midsections and rammed shards of the wood into their bodies to slow them down. Yet the minions were cornering them without fail. The Loud siblings' arms ached from endlessly smashing the wood and whatever material they had to work with against their opponents.

"There's too many of them," Lincoln said.

"I know; I'm gettin' real pooped, dudes," Luna added.

Lynn Jr., refusing to yield, held one of the boards in front of her face in defiance. But even her reserve was faltering. The minions drooled and murmured among themselves as their bulbous physiques cornered them. With their resolve weakened, the Loud siblings accepted their fates and held onto each other.

Before the Unspeakable Possessors could tear into the eleven children, there came a sudden shrieking that filled the air. It was in the sound of legions of bats. Out of the sky came eyeless, flying creatures that grabbed the Unspeakable Possessors with their claws. They flew back into the sky and dropped the Unspeakable Possessors from a high distance.

Hastur and Cthulhu briefly ceased their fighting to stare at the strange creatures. "Nightgaunts" Hastur remarked. "That accursed Nodens is apart of this now."

* * *

Hastur savagely jabbed Cthulhu with his clawed fingers. Cthulhu's strange blood dripped onto the ground. Behind his mask, Hastur's eyes were spinning in different directions. All he could think of in his mind was hurting his half-brother by cutting deep into his body again and again. More waves of pain; more of his blood staining the tips of his fingers. He slashed and tore at the unearthly substance Cthulhu's body was made of. Cthulhu tried to shield his blows with his large wings to no avail. With a swift motion, Hastur kicks Cthulhu on the ground and wrapped his large hands around his neck. Cthulhu's squealing came out in pained yips. Hastur tightened his fingers already feeling that the bones in his brother's neck are breaking.

In desperation of blacking out, Cthulhu plunged the tentacles of his face on Hastur's mask. Hastur immediately removed his hands so he could clasp his mask. The two fought over the mask until there came a popping sound. It began as a small tear but grew into a succession of cracks. Hastur panicked and placed his hands in front of his face to keep the pieces of his mask from becoming undone. Unfortunately for him, his mask crumbled exposing his true face. In all its multiple mandibles and eyes glory. Hastur felt his face caressing it for what to him felt like hours. His mandibles clattered and made a buzzing sound like a swarm of bees. His movement was becoming more frantic and psychotic. He resumed scratching his head, but this time, purple blood was spilling out of his open cuts.

"You disrobed me!" Hastur spit.

Cthulhu was in deep pain now, but he limply began to get back up. Hastur did not even wait for him to regain composure. Instead, he attacked him while he was down and delivered a succession of blows to his face. His form started to shift and contort until he was nothing more than a mass of black tentacles and bat-like wings. The tentacles were laced with sharp claws. Hastur used his claws and ripped into Cthulhu's back. New slashes and scars covered the ones he had accumulated from his training. Cthulhu's life was draining quickly. He would be dead within the hour.

* * *

Lincoln and his sisters left the nightgaunts to fight against the Unspeakable Possessors when they then noticed the widening portal. "Hastur's going to bring the Old Ones back."

"Not if we have any say in that!" Lynn Jr. proclaimed. They raced towards the laser machine that Mia was strapped to. She had fallen unconscious from the excruciating pain. The portal ripped through the fabric of reality awakening some of the Outer Gods. There came a beating of demonic drums and flutes. At the very center of the nucleus of the cosmos laid the Blind Idiot God, the Daemon Sultan, Azathoth. A mass of swathing tentacles and tendrils. Eyes appeared and were absorbed into the mass of tendrils. Tentacled monstrosities with multitude upon multitude of eyes tended to the sleeping mass with demonic flutes and drums. Azathoth slept unaware of the events happening outside of his realm of existence.

Lynn and Lincoln gazed at the buttons and switches that were on the back of the laser machine unsure of which to press. There was a large button that was a crimson red, perhaps that was it. But then there was a knob or two. They also could have also been the solution. There were so many options it was insane. They almost somewhat wished that Dr. Moist was still alive so they could force him to assist them, but there was no such luck.

"Hm…maybe…" Lincoln said.

Lynn exploded. "Fine, if we can't choose a button, we'll have to do all of them."

Before Lincoln could respond, Lynn grabbed one of the boards she used to fight against the Unspeakable Possessors and slammed it on the buttons and switches. Over. And over. And over. Eventually, the machine started to short circuit.

"Lynn, what did you do?" Lincoln said.

Without much thinking, she grabbed Lincoln and ran away from the laser machine. Suddenly, the energy that was being drawn from Mia ceased. The keyboard of the laser machine caught on fire and exploded into pieces. With nothing to sustain the portal, it decreased in size until it imploded on itself. The Outer Gods were once again locked away outside of the space-time continuum.

* * *

Hastur stopped pummeling Cthulhu out of curiosity of the explosion. His eyes bulged out. His beautiful machine of which he would summon the Outer Gods to consume them was no more. With the beating of his mighty wings, he started to bolt in Lincoln and Lynn Jr.'s direction. He prepared his claws to shred the two insolent children to pieces.

"Come over here!"

Hastur turned to see Cthulhu back on his two feet. He had taken advantage of his half-brother's temporary distraction and grabbed him with his sinister claws. Hastur snarled and stabbed his clawed tentacles into Cthulhu's claws. But despite of the physical pain, Cthulhu nevertheless refused to let go. The tentacles dug deeper into his claws and were drawing blood. His tentacles wrapped around his abdomen and squeezed tightly.

Hastur's hissing took on a fashion of laughter. Cthulhu was on the verge of blacking out again. His vision became blurred, but he cupped around to feel his brother. When he felt that his head was close to his arms, Cthulhu used his spare claw and rammed it in the back of Hastur's head. Between the eyes. Before Hastur could comprehend what was going on, Cthulhu made a swift upper motion and flipped a flat disk of skin over Hastur's face. His struggles slowed down as his black body turned white. Cthulhu then dropped Hastur's lifeless body on the ground of the mall and watched it crumble away and melt into an ooze.

Yog-Sothoth walked towards Cthulhu with his hands immersed in the sleeves of his cloak. "Excellent job, my son."

When Hastur died, his Yellow Sign died alongside him. Around the world, people who were transformed into Unspeakable Possessors reverted to their normal states of mind, but it would considerably be a long time for them to forget the sheer pain that was exerted on their bodies. But for those that were torn apart and consumed by the psychotic creatures passed off from the mortal coil never to be returned.

The Loud siblings gathered around Mia and untied her binds. Lisa's insanity was also gone as a result of Hastur's demise. She was at least lucid enough to inspect Mia. "I don't feel a pulse."

"Oh no," Lincoln exclaimed.

They waited around her body not wanting to pronounce her dead just yet. Sure enough, Mia slowly stirred awake. "What happened? Did we win?"

She opened her eyes to see the Loud siblings looking back at her. Lincoln smiled. "Yes, Mia, we did."

Yog-Sothoth looked at the damage Cthulhu sustained. "Alright, son; kill them."

* * *

Lincoln's ears perked up. "What!? But you helped us!"

Yog-Sothoth slightly smirked. "I am aware. But you humans fail to understand my bigger purpose behind helping you; and that is to use Cthulhu to destroy mankind in my stead."

Cthulhu towered over the siblings unsure of what to do next. "Go on, child," Yog-Sothoth remarked, "make your mother proud."

Cthulhu became conflicted. These kids did nothing to wrong him in anyway, and yet he could not cross Yog-Sothoth like that. Not after everything they have went through. He thought back to how Lana expressed concern over him. More so than Yog-Sothoth gave him. If anything, he was primarily responsible for much of his pain.

"Mother, I cannot."

"Your mother obeyed my commands including when it came to me clawing you out of her womb."

"What?"

Yog-Sothoth sighed. "Fine. If you will not do this simple task, then I'll have the misfortune of doing it."

Yog-Sothoth snapped his fingers producing a small flame. With the waving of his hand, he prepared to incinerate the Loud family with it. At the last minute, Cthulhu grabbed Yog-Sothoth's wrist and flicked the flame towards Lisa's telecommunication device causing it to explode.

Yog-Sothoth's one eye blazed. "Oh, so now you are fighting me?"

* * *

Tendrils erupted from his hands and assaulted Cthulhu giving him more wounds. When he went to strike Cthulhu again, Cthulhu swat Yog-Sothoth across the room. Blood was spilling out of his open wounds. Yog-Sothoth's tendrils grew in gargantuan size and wrapped around Cthulhu's body. "Guess as your mother I have to put my foot down, eh?"

With that, Yog-Sothoth started to squeeze Cthulhu and shortening his breath. As a Great Old One, he was more than powerless against the likes of an Outer God. Mia saw this and jumped out of the hands of the Loud siblings and raced towards Yog-Sothoth.

"Mia, wait!" Lincoln yelled.

Tentacles erupted from Mia's back and slashed Yog-Sothoth's tendrils in half. A bright light flowed through them. "So, you are fully man and fully Outer God? I am impressed."

The mall began to warp and twist as Yog-Sothoth made reality around him and Mia surreal. Alien geometric shapes and inexplicable drumming ran amok. Yog-Sothoth produced more tendrils and shot them towards Mia. Mia dodged them and headbutted Yog-Sothoth. Despite him claiming that he was limited considerably as his actual form was still trapped away somewhere so he was only with a sliver of his power, Yog-Sothoth's powers far exceeded man's and was incomprehensible.

Mia's body started to slow down from her human side reaching its limit. Yog-Sothoth saw this and opened a wormhole where the sound of demonic beating of drums was heard. "Now it is time for you and your friends to all be whisked away to the great throne room of Azathoth himself."

The wormhole widened and began to suck the Loud siblings and Cthulhu into it. Mia looked at the wormhole then at the others. Yog-Sothoth levitated in the air free of the logic that our universe ran on. She squinted her eyes. She needed to time it just right; if not, then they would be in the throne room of the great Daemon Sultan himself. With a thrust of her dorsal tentacles, she grabbed Yog-Sothoth.

"Let me go, you mixed species!" Yog-Sothoth shouted.

Mia refused and furthered her grip on Yog-Sothoth. It tightened until it compressed Yog-Sothoth's avatar. Cthulhu saw this and he slammed his tentacles on Yog-Sothoth in one swift motion.

"This..was unforeseeable," Yog-Sothoth said perplexed.

Yog-Sothoth's body was divided into seven pieces and disappeared in a blinding white light. The mall resumed its normal state but because of the wanton devastation wrought on it, it was falling apart.


	15. Return to R'lyeh

"Guys, we have to leave now!" Luna shouted.

The mall was rapidly falling little by little. Hastur was dead and Yog-Sothoth was taken care of. With time on the essence, they had to escape the crumbling mall without hesitation. As they ran, the ceiling began to cave in.

"Guys, look out!" Lincoln shouted.

A large chunk collapsed and nearly quashed them. At the last minute, Cthulhu held up the debris with his wings. He looked at the Loud kids. "Hold on, I have an idea."

He grabs the eleven kids and the parents with his tentacles and pitched the large chunk of ceiling from his back. His wings had been slightly injured from his fighting with his half-brother with skin receding from them, but he pushed on as hard as he could with his wings and flew at a high speed towards the entrance. Beams holding the mall up began to gave way due to the lack of support.

"We're never gonna make it!" Lincoln announced.

Mia's eyes glowed green and her tentacles began to grow. They became larger when more blood pumped into them. They skyrocketed out of her body and entered the ground. Once she did that, she gripped the floor with her remaining strength and reeled herself back.

"What are you doing?" Cthulhu asked.

"Just trust me!" Mia responded.

Having said this, she suddenly released her tentacles and launched Cthulhu forward. Much like a catapult, Cthulhu was propelled towards the entrance at a rate of speed that was unknown to this world's physics. "Hold tight!" Cthulhu shouted.

The Loud siblings and Mia braced themselves for impact and collided with the door at full force. It created a large, gaping hole where the entrance formerly was. Once that happened, the mall collapsed in on itself, burying itself into the rubble until nothing remained aside from the settling dust. Cthulhu had gone at such a high speed, he accidentally collided with one of the light posts on the mall's parking lot. The siblings breathed heavily from the rush.

"I hope that's the end of these crazy shenanigans," Lori moaned.

* * *

"Do you think Yog-Sothoth died back there?" Lana asked.

"Yog-Sothoth is the All-In-One, time itself," Cthulhu answered, "I doubt he can ever be truly killed."

Lisa rubbed her chin. "I assume then that either the physical body he had was destroyed, or he just slipped back into the timestream. He will be back. Probably."

Lincoln watched the mall disappear behind the thick dust. "I'm sorry that you lost your invention, Lisa."

Lisa shrugged. "Sometimes we have mishaps when it comes to inventing; I'll just go with something smaller. Like maybe a volcano."

Lincoln narrowed his eyes. "You don't mean an actual volcano, right?"

Lisa turned to look at Cthulhu. "So, what are you going to do now that Yog-Sothoth's gone?"

Cthulhu looked past the city towards more land surrounding it. "I guess I'll be returning to my sunken city."

He raised onto his hind legs and began to beat his wings. His scars and wounds began to regenerate with his odd physical composition covering it. With a swift thrust, Cthulhu launched himself into the air and began to fly. Before leaving, he looked at the Loud kids for a moment for beating his wings harder and disappearing over the horizon. Back to his sunken city of R'lyeh to lick his wounds and to once more sleep whether he will awaken once the stars align none knew.

* * *

Shortly after Cthulhu's departure, a car rolled towards the wreckage of the mall. It was traveling at a wild rate nearly crashing into the light post the Great Dreamer crashed into. "What the!?" Lincoln shouted.

The car door opened timidly and out of it came Patrick Stark. "I felt that you guys were here!"

Mia ran towards Patrick who opened his arms to embrace her. "Where have you been?" she asked.

"Oh, I was conducting some business. At least until I received notifications of people turning into blobby monsters through some Yellow Sign," he explained. "I did further research into it."

Patrick stopped speaking to observe the mall's wreckage. "I hate to be the person to clean all that up."

He then held out his hand to Mia. "Ready to go home?"

Mia smiled warmly. "I am, Daddy."

As she got into the car, she spoke a bit with Lincoln and his sisters. They had been so close with each other, they almost considered Mia an additional member of their family.

"Thanks again, Lincoln for your help," Mia said, "hope we'll meet again."

Lincoln nodded. "Yeah; can't wait. But hopefully without there being some sort of apocalypse."

The two shared a laugh for a minute and then a quick hug. Breaking it, Mia closed the door to her side of the car and bid the Loud family a farewell. Patrick started the car by sticking the key into ignition and it slowly droned to life. Patrick then turned the car to a left turn, and they were off.

* * *

"You know, guys," Lincoln said, "Hastur mentioned something about nightgaunts. You know those bat-things?"

"Yeah? Where are you getting at?" Lori asked.

"Clyde said that he and his dads were saved by them when Maya attacked Royal Woods three years ago. And then Hastur said that this Nodens guy was the one who commanded them. Is he a god too, and is actually good?"

Lori shrugged. "I kind of have some difficulty believing that any of those gods could easily be considered good."

The family returned home and tried to rebuild their lives. Several of the houses were ransacked and dismantled into recognition because of Hastur's Unspeakable Possessors. And there were several casualties that were to be accounted for. The paint was stripped from their houses' walls, though from the looks of it, the house was still standing if ever so loosely. Tomorrow would be the show-in-tell at Lisa's school, though considering the circumstances, Lisa may be the only entry.

* * *

"Yes, this is Channel 9 News reporting to you about this latest attack," proclaimed an anchorwoman. "Leaving as quickly as it happened, the city of Royal Woods is just the latest of towns to recover from its sudden plague of obese, tentacled abominations."

While she was speaking, a picture of Hastur's Yellow Sign appeared to the side. "From what investigators could interpret, this was a symbol used by a cult to mass brainwash whoever seen it."

An anchorman spoke next. "Yes; one of the recurring elements behind the Yellow Sign is that it utterly drove onlookers to madness through which their bodies were transformed into those scaly, bloated, limbless nightmares. Researchers termed them as Unspeakable Possessors those that have made some type of deal with a god for whatever reason of their own volition or otherwise. But after this worldwide plague, it seems that the sign no longer has any purpose behind it. More about it at 8."

Miles away from Royal Woods, Michigan, Cthulhu hovered over the southern Pacific Ocean and gazed at his reflection in the water. His scars had been healed, but a bout of exhaustion befell him suddenly. He shook his tentacles on his face as if yawning deeply and gently entered into the water to swim down to his ancient city of R'lyeh where he would sleep once more for a hundred years, or if he was lucky, a thousand or so eons. Past the alien geometric shapes, past his subjects. Cthulhu once found himself at home leagues below the surface.

In his house of R'lyeh, the dead Cthulhu slept dreaming.


End file.
